Canada Soccer awaits response to ‘best and last’ compensation offer for men’s and women’s teams
Canada Soccer’s general secretary said on Tuesday that the organization has made a “best and final” compensation proposal to the men’s and women’s national teams and is awaiting their respective replies.
The offer comes as the women’s team heads to Australia in preparation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on July 20.
“What we’ve tried as best we can, and I believe we’ve done this, is to bring justice into compensation,” said Jason deVos. “But I think the most important thing for me is that we’ve made the standard of care the same in both programs.
“We have equalized the opportunity for them to be active in every window and to be able to give them the competition they need, the training they need to reach their highest level of performance in the same environment for both programs. “
Team captain Christine Sinclair said this week that the team wanted a deal for the World Cup.
“We knew this was going to be a fight. We knew it was going to take some time,” Sinclair told The Canadian Press. “But we as a women’s team have flat out told the CSA that we need a deal for at least the World Cup and this year before we go there. So obviously we’re getting close. I think it’s going to happen. Will it be a long term deal No. But something will be done before the World Cup starts.”
LOOK | Jason deVos of Canada Soccer is committed to equality:
Jason deVos, Deputy Secretary General of Canada Soccer, discusses the organization’s renewed commitment to providing an equal “standard of care” for the men’s and women’s national team programs.
DeVos said Canada Soccer’s offering also includes what he called an equitable standard of care for both the women’s and men’s programs around travel, hotels, staff training grounds.
“That experience will be at the highest possible level and will be consistent across both programs,” he said.
This comes in the wake of another turbulent week at Canada Soccer headquarters, including a report that suggested the national sports body was considering bankruptcy. But deVos was unequivocal in saying that while finances are an issue, bankruptcy is not being considered.
“Canada Soccer is not considering bankruptcy and is not discussing bankruptcy internally as a strategy or an outcome,” he told CBC Sports just hours before the Canada men’s team played Guadeloupe in Toronto on Wednesday to begin the Gold Cup.
“It’s frustrating. We want to focus on what really matters and that’s the on-field performance of our national team athletes and also creating environments where kids can fall in love with the game.”
DeVos took over as interim general secretary in April at the height of the turmoil within the national sports body. It has been a year of trouble for Canada Soccer, including the boycott of a friendly against Panama by the men’s national team in Vancouver over labor talks ahead of the World Cup in Qatar in November.
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Host Andi Petrillo and Shireen Ahmed of CBC play a game called “Something, Nothing, and Everything,” discussing Canada’s young up-and-coming talent who could play a major role in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The women’s national team also threatened a boycott at the SheBelieves Cup in February over pay equality and resource issues, but backtracked after Canada Soccer threatened legal action.
“We are in a challenging financial position,” said deVos. “Obviously we had a pretty big deficit last year and will have another deficit this year, but we are taking active steps to address that to get back into balance.”
What should have been a time of celebration due to the unparalleled success in the program’s history, including an Olympic gold medal won by the women’s team in Tokyo and the men’s program qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in 36 years, has instead been become controversial between the teams and the organization.
“We’re struggling right now, but we’ll get through this,” said deVos, former captain of the men’s national team and director of development for Canada Soccer for six years.
“We are going to get through this and we on the other hand will be more resilient, more connected, more grounded and all working together to improve the game in this country.”
Earlier this week, John Herdman, head coach of the men’s team, said now is the time to solve the financial problems.
“When I come from a World Cup, I think [everyone] I expected it to be all sunshine and rainbows, that there would be finances to take the team to the next level and it hasn’t,” Herdman told reporters. “These players have earned that right. The employees have earned that right. We shouldn’t go backwards after a World Cup, but we do understand that expectations in this country have gone up.”
The challenge for deVos is to balance the equity of the national team programs while funding grassroots level programs across the country.
“It’s about creating a legacy and taking this game to a place it’s never been before and I feel like we have this opportunity at our fingertips,” he said. “Our women are Olympic gold medalists, they go to the World Cup.
“We want to talk about that and inspire the next generation of young footballers, boys and girls across the country.”
Football North is back with a focus on Canada’s women’s team preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Join host Andi Petrillo and special guests every Friday for insight and analysis leading up to the tournament.
