Canada Soccer offers equal pay for men, women in CBA proposal
Canada Soccer released some of the key details of its proposed collective bargaining agreement with the men's and women's national teams on Thursday.
The proposed labor deal, announced hours before Christine Sinclair and three other players appeared before a parliamentary committee to discuss their concerns regarding the national program, would have men's and women's players earn the same amount per match. Both teams would also share an equal portion of competition prize money.
The women's national team will become the second-highest-paid among FIFA’s 211 member associations if the proposal is accepted.
"It is time to get a deal done," Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane said.
"We've been negotiating in good faith and want to get to a resolution with our National Teams. In order to get there, we need both of our National Teams to agree. Our women deserve to be paid equally and they deserve the financial certainty going into the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup."
Speaking to members of Canadian parliament on Thursday, women's national team forward Janine Beckie said the players felt "quite disrespected" by the federation's decision to make details of the proposal public.
"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," Beckie said, according to Reuters. "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."
Negotiations between all three parties (the women's and men's teams as well as Canada Soccer) are still taking place and a deal has yet to be agreed on.
Both teams would also earn an equal amount ($1.15 million) for qualifying for future FIFA World Cups. The men qualified for the World Cup last year for the first time since 1986, while the women have featured in every World Cup since 1995 and recorded their best performance on home soil in 2015 by reaching the quarterfinals.
"Canada Soccer has been adamant that, to ensure pay equity between the national teams, a deal needs to include the pooling together of both the women's and the men's FIFA World Cup prize money and then sharing the total amount equally by all National Team Players," Canada Soccer's statement reads.
The women's team threatened to boycott the SheBelieves Cup in February over Canada Soccer's controversial decision to cut funding.
Canada Soccer then threatened legal action over a potentially illegal player strike. Players, many of whom helped Canada win gold at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, relented but vowed to play the competition under protest.
Nick Bontis resigned as president of Canada Soccer on Feb. 28 after his removal from the position was collectively requested by the 13 presidents of Canada's provincial and territorial soccer federations. Sinclair told the committee on Thursday that a meeting held last year with Bontis showcased the "lack of respect" the federation has for its women's team.
"I was tasked with outlining our compensation ask on behalf of the women's national team," Sinclair, the all-time leading scorer in international soccer history, explained, per The Canadian Press. "The president of Canada Soccer listened to what I had to say and then later in the meeting referred back to it as: 'What was it Christine was bitching about?'"
Earlier this month, Canada Soccer and the women's team issued a joint statement announcing a funding agreement that included "per-game incentives and results-based compensation" similar to a deal that was struck with the men.