{"id":45986,"date":"2023-02-10T22:20:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-11T03:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=45986"},"modified":"2023-02-10T22:22:24","modified_gmt":"2023-02-11T03:22:24","slug":"canada-womens-national-team-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/02\/10\/canada-womens-national-team-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada Women&#8217;s National Team Controversy Unpacked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NEWS &#8211; <\/strong>At about mid-day today, the Canadian Women\u2019s National Team dropped a bomb on Canadian soccer. In a joint statement by all the players, they outlined their frustration and dismay at Canada Soccer and their management of funding for the national team program.<\/p>\n<p>With cuts to training camps, and no home games in Canada before the Women\u2019s World Cup, there is a lot of information to process and a lot of history to dig up. Here is the gist of it so far.<\/p>\n<h1>Canada Women&#8217;s National Team Controversy Revealed<\/h1>\n<h3>CanWNT\/XNT Statement Explained<\/h3>\n<h4>Outrage and Disappointment<\/h4>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The time is now, we are taking job action. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QbVbhTcdDU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/QbVbhTcdDU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; CanadianSoccerPlayers (@PlayersCanadian) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PlayersCanadian\/status\/1624160160980557826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 10, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Women\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PlayersCanadian\/status\/1624160160980557826?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement<\/a> was clear from the get-go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Canadian Women\u2019s National Team is both outraged and deeply concerned with the news of significant cuts to the national team programs for 2023\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>According to the rest of the statement, they explain that Canada Soccer, the governing body for Canadian soccer, has cut significant funding towards the Women\u2019s National Team program. This includes cutting full training camp windows, youth camps, various staff and players eligible to attend these camps, and more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite our strong track record of success and history-making achievements for more than a decade, we continue to be told there is not enough money to adequately fund our program and our youth teams\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The timing of this could not be worse. The CanWNT\/XNT is set to play in the SheBelieves Cup in <a href=\"https:\/\/canadasoccer.com\/news\/canada-soccers-womens-national-team-to-feature-in-shebelieves-cup-in-february\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">less than a week<\/a>. The invitational soccer tournament will serve as a warm-up competition before the Women\u2019s World Cup later this year. Come to their opening match, the team will enter the field as reigning Olympic Gold medalists.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2021\/08\/06\/canwnt-makes-history-olympic-gold\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">CanWNT makes history with first-ever Olympic gold medal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yet, they were told of these cuts just recently.<\/p>\n<h4>Defiant and Blunt<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cWe have been told, quite literally, that Canada Soccer cannot adequately fund the Women\u2019s National Team, and they have waited to tell us until now when we are less than six months from the World Cup\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many believe that Canada has a good chance to go all the way to this tournament, but this may hamper their chances given the background noise that has been ongoing for over a year. The team, however, will not stand aside and let this go for the sake of silverware.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are tired \u2013 tired of constantly having to fight for fair and equal treatment\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Canada Soccer is not willing or able to support our team, new leadership should be found\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The statement was reposted by a majority of the Canadian Women&#8217;s National team on Twitter.<\/p>\n<h3>CanMNT Show Support<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A message from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CANMNT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#CANMNT<\/a> \ud83c\udf41 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7OQEJg7FMN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/7OQEJg7FMN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mark-Anthony Kaye (@MarkThEwizz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkThEwizz\/status\/1624174389305692160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 10, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Less than twenty minutes later, the Canadian Men\u2019s National Team <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkThEwizz\/status\/1624174389305692160?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">also released a statement<\/a>, through their player association (CMNSTPA). The statement indicated their support for their national team counterpart, as well as continued disappointment with Canada Soccer.<\/p>\n<p>Their statement, however, was more pointed. They directly called out Canada Soccer\u2019s secrecy around a deal that was made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/world-cup-bonus-fight-exposes-battles-over-canada-soccer-transparency-governance-1.1824428\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">back in 2019<\/a> with Canada Soccer Business (CSB), a private business made up of CPL-franchise owners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow Canada Soccer is allocating or using funds is unclear and cloaked in secrecy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite the funding from FIFA and fan interest following the Men\u2019s National Team\u2019s qualification for and participation in the 2022 World Cup, Canada Soccer\u2019s revenue streams have been in large part diverted to Canada Soccer Business, to the benefit of the owners of for-profit minor league professional soccer teams\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been reported that the agreement was never properly approved and that despite having an opportunity to annul or terminate the agreement when its terms were breached by Canada Soccer Business, Canada Soccer did not do so\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement done back in 2019 now casts a shadow over Canada Soccer and its handling of both the Men\u2019s and the Women\u2019s National Teams, and the Men\u2019s statement did not hold back on its potential implications:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in a pivotal moment in time for soccer in Canada. This is a once-in-a-generation, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grow the sport in Canada, and the current leadership of Canada Soccer is putting that opportunity at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>CanWNT\/XNT On Strike; Canada Soccer Respond<\/h3>\n<p><a id=\"k0JdIqngR2NYKoy7JUQWZQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1238579080\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'k0JdIqngR2NYKoy7JUQWZQ',sig:'PnGfDV_5Klq4wEqlF7LtK0cehzUv7YnTFBO-NoMt-8M=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1238579080',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rick Westhead also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rwesthead\/status\/1624171631840034818?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a> that, according to Christine Sinclair and Janine Beckie, the Women\u2019s team is officially on strike unless there is a resolution.<\/p>\n<p>One Soccer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/onesoccer\/status\/1624186717581332482?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">corroborated<\/a> the story and indicated that Canada\u2019s participation in the SheBelieves Cup, alongside any potential training before it, would be suspended until further notice.<\/p>\n<p>This likely means that Canada\u2019s opening match against the United States will be postponed if not suspended, and puts the whole invitational into disarray.<\/p>\n<p>In response to this, Canada Soccer released a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadaSoccerEN\/status\/1624205022920683523?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement<\/a> citing that they have \u201ca proven track record of supporting women\u2019s soccer\u201d and that they have \u201calready issued a mutually-agreed retroactive payment\u201d for their demands for equitable play between themselves and the Men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p>However, there was no mention or explanation of the significant cuts, the lack of funding, or the CSB deal in their statement.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadaSoccerEN\/status\/1624205022920683523?cxt=HHwWhsC9mZ33qootAAAA<\/p>\n<p>It will remain to be seen if any resolution will be met in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEWS &#8211; At about mid-day today, the Canadian Women\u2019s National Team dropped a bomb on Canadian soccer. In a joint statement by all the players, they outlined their frustration and dismay at Canada Soccer and their management of funding for the national team program. With cuts to training camps, and no home games in Canada [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4370,"featured_media":45989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3406,3343,3496,3024],"tags":[871,5438,2002],"class_list":["post-45986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada-mnt","category-canada-wnt","category-shebelieves-cup","category-womens-world-cup","tag-canada-soccer","tag-christian-sinclair","tag-janine-beckie"],"modified_by":"Raheem Bashir, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}