Canadian women’s team feel ‘disrespected’ after details of proposed collective bargaining deal were made public with no notice

The Canadian women’s team feel 'disrespected' after Canada Soccer made the details of the proposed collective bargaining deal public with no notice.

Hours before Canadian players were scheduled to appear before parliament Canada Soccer published the details of the proposed deal. Portland Thorns striker Janine Beckie said “We feel quite disrespected by the way they went about their business this afternoon. We believe what was talked about in good-faith bargaining between our players association and Canada Soccer should have stayed between the players association and the Canadian soccer association. And there were terms and numbers and pieces within their statement today that has not even been communicated to us. So that was a bit of a shock to us.”

The proposed deal would see the men’s and women’s teams paid equally and share competition prize money equally. Following Beckie’s remarks in parliament a Canada Soccer spokesperson said “Canadians deserve to know that Canada Soccer wants and is ready to deliver gender equity to our players. Throughout this process, our priority has been to negotiate privately, through our respective legal counsel, and finding the most responsible way to a resolution. We did that for months. Unfortunately in recent weeks, information was shared and circulated with media that failed to include full and important context.”

The players gave a scathing review of Canada Soccer, saying the organization paid male players five times as much as it did players on the women's team in 2021. But they said pay equity is only a part of their fight.

They said the women's program overall receives less support. They said the team has been holding training camps without fully staffed medical and training teams.

"We as players sometimes have to make choices about which medical treatments to receive when staff physiotherapists are stretched," Quinn said. They added that the team also has had to cut the number of players at camp, making it unable to run full field drills.

Canada Soccer spent $11m (£6.72m) on the men's programme in 2021 and $5.1m (£3.11m) on the women's programme.

Canada's men went on strike in June 2022 after accusing Canada Soccer of "disrespect" over World Cup prize money and have said they "wholeheartedly support" the women's side.