England Women will wear purple wristbands during their Arnold Clark Cup match against Italy in a show of support for gender equality and solidarity with their Canadian counterparts.
The Canada team is in dispute with their federation amid collective bargaining agreement negotiations after demanding “immediate change”, calling on it to treat the women’s program “equally and fairly” with its funding.
The colour purple is being used as it has “historically been associated with efforts to achieve gender equality”.
The Canada team wore purple warm-up shirts as a “symbol of protest” during their game against the U.S. at the SheBelieves Cup in Orlando on Thursday. The team says their will continue to wear the purple shirts until Canada Soccer “has standards in place that ensure equal treatment and opportunity”.
USWNT players Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe expressed their support for the Canada team last week too.
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Backstory
Canada players, including Chelsea’s Jessie Fleming, shared a post that summarized their dispute with the federation — stressing that this went beyond compensation for the players.
“There are two larger issues that exist within Canada Soccer,” she wrote in an…
