Canada women’s national team players say that their current battle with their federation “could be our most important fight that we ever have as national team players, and it’s one we’re determined to win.”
Representatives of the Canada Soccer Players Association, which represents the women’s national team, shared more details of their clash with the Canadian federation over budget cuts and resources across all national team programs.
Speaking with reporters from Orlando, Janine Beckie, Quinn, Sophie Schmidt, and Christine Sinclair all struck a determined note.
“Federations for the most part don’t seem to just be coming out to offer it. It has to be a fight,” said Sinclair. “And it’s our turn now.”
The players said that while they cannot strike during this week’s SheBelieves Cup due to Canadian labor law, they will refuse to play future matches until their demands are met.
“There’s a FIFA window coming up in April, where we have said that if things are — not just addressed, [but] if things aren’t fixed — we will not be going to that camp,” declared Sinclair, who added that playing their SheBelieves Cup matches under protest is “obviously a short-term solution.”
“We’ll be playing these games in protest. But obviously next window, that won’t be the case,” said Canada’s longtime captain.
Schmidt, the veteran Houston Dash midfielder, said that her disgust with the situation — which saw players call off a strike on Saturday after Canada Soccer threatened them with legal action — caused her to nearly retire from the national team on the spot.
Per Schmidt, head coach Bev Priestman asked her to sleep on making a decision for a night, and after a long conversation with Sinclair, the 34-year-old opted to stay on through the World Cup.
Schmidt said Sinclair “made me promise that I will see this final fight through, that we need to leave this place a better environment moving forward and ensure a sustainable pathway that gives girls an opportunity to be successful and to chase after their dreams.”
With Beckie serving as moderator as well as taking questions, the players kept coming back to a major point: wages may be a concern, but the team says its major problem with the federation stems from a reduction in budget for staffing, duration of camps, and other hallmarks of a fully professional preparation for the World Cup this summer.
“How is it that during a time where both the men’s and the women’s program are at their peak success historically, and interest in soccer has not been greater, how are we having budget cuts?” asked Schmidt.
“To really understand the reality of the situation, and understand that the organization is putting us in that position, for me, it’s devastating,” added OL Reign midfielder Quinn. “We’ve been working towards this for — I’m 27 years old — for 23 years, playing for our country, and to understand that our organization put us in that position, for me, it was shattering.”
Beckie detailed some personal experience she had, as she was in Qatar and saw the preparations the Canada men’s national team had in place for their own World Cup.
“I was on the ground in Doha, and I was pretty blown away by just the pure number of staff that the men’s team had. Every time we come into camp, there’s close to half, probably just about half as many as they had,” said Beckie. “I understand that World Cups and major tournaments require extra staff. But if that’s the case of the men’s team, then we expect to be given every staff [member] that Bev requests to have at our World Cup.”
“All we’re asking for is to be given equal opportunity to our men’s team to get ready for our World Cup,” added Beckie. “It’s pretty disgusting that we’re having to ask just to be treated equally. It’s a fight that women all over the world have to partake in every single day, but quite frankly, we’re really sick of it… I just get angry about it because it’s time. It’s 2023, we won the damn Olympic Games. We’re about to go to the World Cup with the team who could win.”
“For the longest time as a women’s team, we’ve been fighting blindly, not knowing what our federation was capable of in a way, in terms of support,” said Sinclair. “All of us were witness to the support our men’s team received from our association as they prepared for their World Cup last year… It’s important for the public to know that the compensation part, the pay, is actually only a small part of the changes that need to happen. As Janine and Quinny have said, it’s from the top down, budgets, staffing. It runs much deeper than just what players make per game.”
‘Something has to change’
Beckie gave a timeline over the latest round of negotiations, saying that before the men’s World Cup, things seemed to be heading in a good direction. That made the latest turn of events all the more disappointing from a players’ perspective.
“It was in a spot where we felt very positive about the direction that it was moving in,” explained the Portland Thorns winger. According to her, while an agreement was not imminent, “we all kind of stepped away and did that for the holiday period with the full intention of coming back to the table in the new year and trying to get a contract signed before our lead into the World Cup really began.”
“We came into camp and were made aware of the situation and things changed pretty quickly for us,” said Beckie on how circumstances had shifted to a scenario where players are ready to refuse call-ups. “We still have full intention of coming to some kind of agreement when these fundamental issues are resolved and acknowledged and taken care of. So that’s something we feel very strongly about signing ASAP, it’s a very urgent matter for us and something that’s of the utmost importance for us.”
All four players addressed their concerns that the youth pipeline on the women’s side is suffering from a lack of funding and focus at the federation level. Beckie noted — much to the amusement of Sinclair — that the Canadians don’t have the level of turnover seen at other top national teams, essentially because promising younger players aren’t given enough of a platform to challenge them.
“The women’s youth program is only scheduled to have one camp this year, and that is for all age groups,” said a clearly frustrated Schmidt. “How is this possible? Where’s the money?”
Sinclair described the mood in this camp as “tense” and said part of the problem is simply how long the team has felt like they’re not being supported by their federation. That stands in stark contrast to what has been the best spell on the field in Canada’s soccer-playing history, with the women’s team winning Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 and the strongest generation of talent their men’s side has ever had going to a World Cup for the first time in 36 years.
“I’ve been on this team a very long time, and it has been a constant battle with the leadership of CSA,” explained Sinclair. “Something has to change. We can’t beat around the bush: something has to change. The success of both programs, there’s no way that we should be facing the current reality that we’re facing. Something needs to change.”
In the meantime, Canada faces the U.S. women’s national team — no strangers to labor strife with their federation — on Thursday. Sinclair said that the team is still playing under protest, and is holding internal discussions on ways to make that fact visible.
The players say they’re a unified front.
“These decisions that our entire team — players on the ground here in Florida and players like Desiree Scott back at home, nursing an injury — are all a part of,” said Beckie. “30-plus players are making this decision behind the scenes and I think it’s really important to note that we’re all in agreeance on how we move forward.”
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