The pay gap between men‘s and women‘s soccer is the subject of debate, but the Canadian team has gone a step further and taken action to protest against their Federation. To do this, the players decided not to appear for a friendly against Panama.
The senior men’s team squad spoke out for what they see as gross injustice and called for equal pay for men and women at Canada Soccer. In addition, with this pressure measure, the players demanded 40% of the financial compensation derived from qualifying for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
The team issued a statement explaining the reasons why the squad did not show up for the match against Panama, alluding to a series of conversations and requests that Canada Soccer has long ignored.
For the future of soccer
“It’s about time we took a stand for the future of soccer in Canada,” the text began. “We want to work together with our Federation, but the relationship has been strained over the last few years. Now, Canada Soccer has disrespected our team and jeopardized our efforts to advance soccer in Canada.” This is an argument that is reinforced by remembering that the women’s team won the gold medal in Tokyo 2020.
In addition, through the said statement, a review of contracts related to television rights and sponsorships of the Federation has been requested again, as well as the aforementioned 40% for qualifying for the World Cup and equal pay.
At the same time, Canada Soccer defends itself against the accusations. “We compared our offer to other teams around the world. On the subject of gender equity, the offer also committed to providing the same terms to our women’s national team,” said chairman Nick Bontis.
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