Christine Sinclair, the face of women’s soccer in Canada, demonstrated how the former Canada Soccer president had disregarded her when she appeared before the Canadian Heritage Standing Committee on Thursday.

National team captain Sinclair raised the issue of the huge pay gap between men’s and women’s teams in 2021.

“No one has offended me more than [l’ex-président] from Canada Soccer, Nick Bontis, last year when we met to share our concerns.

“He listened to what I had to say. Later during the meeting, he referred to my remarks by saying, “What did Christine complain about? [bitching about]?”»

Sinclair’s complaints were valid: The men’s team members were paid five times as well as their sisters in 2021.

This huge gap and the recent budget cuts hitting the women’s team are having a huge impact on the reigning Olympic champions’ mental, physical and financial health, as well as their development programme.

“It affects our preparation, our rehabilitation and our training,” explained Janine Beckie. It sometimes means that we as players sometimes have to decide what medical treatment we want to receive when the staff is too busy.

“There is only one training camp per year for the youth national team,” confirms Sophie Schmidt. The player development system is broken. What message does this send to young people who dream of representing Canada?

Just more of the same?

At the end of February, Bontis finally handed in his resignation at the request of the country’s 13 provincial and territorial organizations.

Her successor, former player Charmaine Crooks, became the first woman and person of color to hold the position.

However, these winds of change could be illusory in the eyes of Quinn, a member of the national team.

“I don’t think we trust her,” she said. Charmaine has served on the board since 2013. She has never shown support for the women’s program. She’s part of the old guard.”

The formation of the maple leaf requires, above all, transparency and respect on the part of the association.

“We’ve had success with few resources,” concluded Beckie. We are expected to do more with less. We are so tired and tired of having to fight the same fight.

See how much Canada’s players would be paid:

For the first time in its history, Canada Soccer was able to offer its players on both men’s and women’s teams equal pay. The organization is very open about its procedures and earlier today presented the figures for its new collective agreement proposal.

All athletes, regardless of gender, would be paid $3,500 per game, according to the offer made to players’ associations on Thursday. Bonuses of up to $5,500, depending on opponent placement, would be added for each encounter.

With this new compensation, the Canada women’s team would become the second-highest-paid of FIFA’s 211 nations. Its members started a protest movement in February by refusing to take part in training on the sidelines of the SheBelieves Cup. The female players demanded a fairer salary compared to their male colleagues.

Believing that Canada Soccer did not provide sufficient support in the run-up to the next World Cup from July 20 to August 20, 2023, the players began their protests. The new collective bargaining agreement would also solve this problem, as each national team will receive 1.15 million dollars for qualifying for the prestigious tournament.

Finally, Canada Soccer also proposes a more equitable distribution of the unequal amounts of money awarded in international competitions.

When it comes to funding teams, particularly in major competitions, the federation has promised fair treatment. It may not offer as much cash for each selection as some tournaments require greater resources, especially in terms of travel. For example, men have the CONCACAF Nations League, which does not yet have a counterpart for women.

For its funding, Canada Soccer will proceed with the hiring of a new commercial director and establish a new department within the organization that will oversee foundational and philanthropic efforts.