Canada Soccer and its women’s national team players have reached an interim funding agreement, the sport’s governing body said Thursday.
The terms of the deal, which is retroactive to last season, reflect that of the men’s national team, Canada Soccer said, with per-game incentives and results-based compensation. A final collective bargaining agreement is still under negotiation.
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The women’s national team’s last agreement with Canada Soccer expired in 2021. With an agreement in place, details of the federation’s funding are being finalized by legal counsel from both sides, the announcement said.
“This is about respect, this is about dignity, and this is about equalising the competitive environment in a world that is fundamentally unequal,” Canada Soccer’s general secretary Earl Cochrane said in a statement.
“We have been consistent and public about the need to have fairness and equal pay be pillars of any new agreements with our players, and we are delivering on that today.”
A labour dispute between the governing body and its women’s team had plunged the run-up to the Women’s World Cup into turmoil less than 150 days before the quadrennial tournament kicked off.
