In joint testimony before the Canadian Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, a group of the country’s women’s national team players said that they had no trust in the leadership of Canada Soccer.
The players (Christine Sinclair, Janine Beckie, Sophie Schmitt and Quinn) also provided more details on the substance of their dispute with the country’s national soccer federation, while the federation itself released details of a collective bargaining agreement it said had been proposed for both its men’s and women’s national teams.
Schmitt said: “Canada Soccer is supposed to be responsible for the development of women’s soccer in Canada. However, Canada Soccer treats the women’s game as an afterthought. It has failed to put in place any structure, resources or plan for the development and future success of the women’s game in this country. Instead, it has diverted significant resources to men’s soccer in Canada, including through the support of the Canadian Premier League.”
Beckie, 28, believes it will take a long time to restore trust in the federation.
She added: “I think the first thing that we need is to rebuild the trust with our association. They have on multiple occasions broken our trust and in my opinion, a statement as put out today is another indication of a difficult place that we’ve been put in to trust them.
“For the last 12-plus years we have been negotiating in the dark and that makes things very difficult for us. Because as we stated before, imagine the shock when we hear what they’ve been able to pay our men’s team when we’ve been just bargaining in good faith for 12 years.”
Before the players’ testimony on Thursday, Canada Soccer released details of the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) with its national teams following protests about budget cuts being made to the women’s side.
According to the federation, the deal would make the Canada the second-highest paid women’s national team among FIFA’s 211 member associations, while also ensuring both the men’s and women’s teams are paid equally for playing a full 90-minute match.
A new CBA agreement is still being negotiated and will require all three institutions (women’s national team, men’s national team and Canada Soccer) to work together and strike a deal.
Canada Soccer say the proposed CBA includes, but is not limited to the following elements:
- Equal pay (appearance fees and win bonuses) for both national teams; $3,500 will be paid per match per player, plus win bonuses of up to $5,500 per player depending the rankings of the opposition.
- An equal amount ($1.15 million) to each national team for their qualification to the World Cup.
- The sharing of competition prize money.
Both the Canada men’s and women’s soccer teams previously made statements complaining about the budget cuts being made to the women’s team, which the players previously said reached the point of “crisis”.
The women’s team threatened to go on strike on February 11, which was five days before their first SheBelieves Cup match against USWNT. But following talks with Canada Soccer, the women’s team announced that they were being compelled to return to training ahead of the tournament under the threat of legal action against both the team and individual players.
As a result, they pledged to return to training and play in the tournament, though Christine Sinclair tweeted that “The SheBelieves (Cup) is being played in protest.”
The issues around the women’s team is on the back off a surge in popularity in Canadian soccer. The women’s team won an Olympic gold medal in 2021, while the men’s squad qualified for their first World Cup in 36 years in 2022. That has led to an increased profile and, the teams argue, increased sponsorship revenue.
(Photo: Getty Images)
