Canada Soccer has made a new offer to its players in a bid to resolve their ongoing contract impasse.
Canada Soccer has made a new offer to its players in a bid to resolve their ongoing contract impasse.
Earl Cochrane, general secretary of Canada Soccer, said a “global compensation offer” was made Tuesday, September 20 to Canadian men and women. He declined to share details.
Canada Soccer’s previous offer was made in late June. At the time, he said he was looking “to even out issues related to player pool compensation, travel policy and setting up high-performance environments” between the two teams.
Players responded in late August, and Canada Soccer made its offer this week in response.
The Canadian men have formed a players’ association (the National Men’s Soccer Team Players Association of Canada) as compensation negotiations continue, following the lead of the women’s team, which is represented by the Canadian Soccer Players Association (CSPA).
The association covers players who have been called up to any Men’s National Team camp since January 2021.
Time is running out, with the World Cup due to start on November 20.
Cochrane says the hope is that the impasse can be resolved by the start of the tournament. But both sides said there were issues that could be resolved after Qatar.
There are, however, two pressing issues that needed to be resolved before the tournament started. One concerns the assistance available to friends and families of players traveling to Qatar and the other involves the distribution of prize money.
Cochrane says there has been “significant progress” on both fronts.
Qatar marks only Canada’s second trip to the men’s soccer showcase, following the 1986 tournament in Mexico where Canada was eliminated after losses to France, Hungary and the Soviet Union.
And with FIFA paying out millions to competing teams, there’s a lot at stake for the current crop of players.
Dissatisfaction with the state of negotiations has prompted the men to boycott a scheduled June friendly against Panama in Vancouver, citing “unnecessarily protracted” negotiations over a new contract. The players said they wanted a bigger share of the World Cup prize money and a ”complete friends and family package” for the tournament.
They are said to have asked for an after-tax payment equivalent to 40% of the eight-figure payment expected for the World Cup.
During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, FIFA provided a total of $791 million to the 32 participating teams, up 40% from the 2014 tournament.
Of this amount, US$400 million was paid out in prize money, ranging from US$38 million to the winner, US$28 million to the runner-up and US$24 million to the third-placed team to US$8 million. US dollars to each of the eliminated teams. in the group stage.
Each qualifying team also received US$1.5 million to cover preparation costs, meaning all teams were guaranteed at least US$9.5 million each for their participation.
The Canadian men, currently ranked 43rd in the world, prepare in Europe for friendlies against number 48 Qatar on Friday September 23 in Vienna and number 13 Uruguay next Tuesday September 27 in Bratislava.
They still have a warm-up game against number 24 Japan on November 17 in Dubai before opening the World Cup on November 23 against second-placed Belgium.
After Belgium, Canada will face number 15 Croatia on November 27 and number 23 Morocco on December 1 in Group F.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on September 21, 2022.
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