A step forward for parity. The Football Canada Association on Thursday announced an agreement in principle on funding for the women’s national team in hopes of ending allegations of gender inequality that have prompted a crisis and the departure of its president. Modeled on a similar deal with the men’s team, the interim deal includes per-game bonuses and results-based pay, the federation said in a statement.
“It’s about respect, dignity and leveling the playing field in a world that is fundamentally unequal,” said Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane. We have consistently and publicly advocated the need for fairness and equal pay as pillars of any new agreement. »
The association made it clear that a new comprehensive collective agreement between the two teams was still being negotiated and that the interim agreement announced on Thursday could therefore still be changed. On Wednesday, former Olympic track and field champion Charmaine Crooks was named acting head of the Canadian federation following the sudden resignation of President Nick Bontis.
In early February, the women’s team announced a strike to denounce gender inequalities and lack of funding, an approach supported by the men’s team. The movement had been halted amid threats of legal action from the federation, and the reigning Olympic champions then played the SheBelieves Cup in Florida, a friendly pre-season tournament for this summer’s Women’s World Cup, which they had threatened to boycott.
According to the team’s emblematic captain, Christine Sinclair, the association awarded more than CA$11 million to the men’s team in 2021, compared to about CA$5 million to the women’s team during the previous year the association’s spending is almost identical: just over $3 million for the men and $2.8 million for the women.
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