Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

Soccer Canada have made a new offer to their players to solve their ongoing contract gap.

Earl Cochrane, general secretary of Soccer Canada, said a “global offer of compensation” was presented to male and female players on Tuesday. He did not want to reveal details.

Soccer Canada’s previous bid was made in late June. At the time, the organization said it wanted to balance “issues related to player pool compensation, travel policies and the establishment of high-performance environments” between the two teams.

Players responded in late August and Soccer Canada responded with its offer this week.

In the course of the ongoing compensation negotiations, the players of the men’s teams have joined together to form an association (Canadian Men’s Soccer Team Players Association of Canada) based on the model of the women’s team, which is represented by the Canadian Soccer Players Association.

The association includes players who have been called up to a men’s national team camp since January 2021.

Time is of the essence because the soccer World Cup begins on November 20th.

Cochrane says the hope is the impasse can be resolved before the tournament begins. But both sides said there were issues that could be resolved after the World Cup in Qatar.

However, there are two pressing issues that needed to be resolved before the tournament could begin. One concerns support for friends and families of players traveling to Qatar and the other concerns the distribution of scholarship funds.

Cochrane says there has been “significant progress” on both fronts.

The World Cup in Qatar is only Canada’s second participation in this tournament in men’s football, after 1986 in Mexico, where the Maple Leaf representatives were eliminated after defeats by France, Hungary and the Union Soviets.

And with FIFA paying millions to participating teams, there’s a lot of money at stake for the current group of players.

Dissatisfaction with the state of negotiations prompted the men to boycott a planned June friendly against Panama in Vancouver, citing “unnecessarily lengthy” negotiations for a new contract. Players have indicated they want a bigger share of the World Cup purse and a “complete friends and family package” for the tournament.

They are said to have demanded an after-tax payout of 40 percent of the projected eight-figure payout for the World Cup.

At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, FIFA provided the 32 participating teams with a total of US$791 million, a 40 percent increase over the 2014 tournament.

Of that amount, $400 million was paid out in the form of a purse, with $38 million going to the winner, $28 million to the runner-up, and $24 million to the third-place finisher. Teams eliminated in the group stage received $8 million each.

Each qualifying team also received $1.5 million to cover preparation costs, meaning all teams were guaranteed a minimum of $9.5 million for their participation.

The men, currently ranked 43 in the world, are preparing in Europe for friendlies against Qatar on Friday in Vienna, Austria and Uruguay next Tuesday in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The Canadians also play a pre-season game against Japan in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on November 17 before kicking off their World Cup tournament against Belgium on November 23.

After this match against Belgium, Canada will face Croatia on November 27th and Morocco on December 1st in Group F matches.