Canada Soccer and women’s national team players have reached a tentative funding agreement for 2022.
Canada Soccer said the terms of the deal mirror those of the men’s national team, with per-game incentives and results-based compensation. Negotiations for the final collective bargaining agreement continue.
The women’s national team’s last contract with Canada Soccer expired in 2021.
“It’s about respect, it’s about dignity, and it’s basically about leveling competitiveness in an unequal world,” Canadian Football General Secretary Earl Cochrane said in a statement.
“We’ve been consistent and public that fairness and equal pay should be the pillars of new deals with our players, and we’re making that happen today.”
A labor dispute between the board of directors and the women’s team had thrown the run to the Women’s World Cup, less than 150 days before the start of the quarterly tournament, into turmoil.
Olympic champions played last month’s SheBelieves Cup under protest after facing the threat of legal action over pay equity concerns and plans to strike over the budget.
They took the field in purple jerseys with the words “enough is enough” ahead of the opening games at the annual round-robin tournament, and earlier this week, Canadian Football President Nick Bontis announced his resignation.
Reuters