It wasn’t until long after midnight on Aug. 7, 2021, that the Canadian women’s Olympic football team could turn to face the lofted Canadian flag, gold medals hanging around their necks, and begin to sing “O Canada.” From back-to-back semifinals heartbreak in 2012 and 2016, the North American team had finally won a major women’s football tournament.
Despite the Olympics taking place in empty stadia across Japan over the summer of 2021, rather than the full venues of the 2015 Women’s World Cup that Canada had hosted, the joy in the sticky Yokohama night air was mixed with hope. Canada had been forced to go on their Olympic journey alone, their fans left at home because of the ongoing pandemic and strict entry requirements for the host nation. Yet again the team stood on the precipice: women’s football in Canada finally had a spark that could finally be ignited with their success.
Fast forward 18 months and the team, far from being celebrated by Canada Soccer, have instead seen more of their budgets slashed, with the federation claiming it doesn’t have the revenue to support all parts of the game. It’s a claim that the men’s team, via their players’ association, has taken the federation to task over given that the numbers seemingly don’t add up.
Worse still, former Canadian…
