Canada’s preparations for this year’s World Cup were thrown into further turmoil when players went on de facto strike in Vancouver ahead of the country’s hastily rearranged friendly with Panama on Sunday.
John Herdman’s side refused to train on both Friday and Saturday in an apparent protest over player compensation and benefits for Qatar 2022, with months of fruitless talks coming to a head. The players and Canada Soccer are reportedly still sharply apart on lawsuits with an initial report from TSN suggesting the players had asked for a 40% cut from World Cup revenue with the association offering only 10 % of a FIFA windfall likely to be $10-15 million range.
Fresh from the debacle caused by Canada Soccer’s initial organization of a friendly against Iran, two years after 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents were killed when Iranian forces shot down a passenger plane shortly after leaving Tehran, the The weekend’s surprising events brought more ignominy to an association long blighted by dysfunction and poor performance.
Herdman defied expectations and history to guide the Canadian men to their first World Cup berth in 36 years, the team led by exciting young talents like Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David surging through Concacaf qualification and winning a huge wave of new fans on the way.
Sunday’s friendly was to be the team’s first comeback at home since sealing qualification against Jamaica in Toronto in March. However, the fate of the game, scheduled to kick off at 4:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. ET), remained unclear.
The team was due to train at the Vancouver Whitecaps’ base at the University of British Columbia on Friday afternoon. With less than an hour’s notice, that session was delayed by nearly three hours before being canceled entirely. Saturday’s training session was also scrapped.
The showdown comes shortly after the US Soccer Federation struck a groundbreaking deal with its men’s and women’s national teams that will see them share revenue from their respective World Cup campaigns and receive equal pay for appearances and victories. That deal will see American players take a combined cut of more than 80% of World Cup revenue.
On Saturday night, Canada Soccer disputed initial reports, saying it proposed that the men’s team take 30% of the prize money with the same amount going to the women’s team and the association taking the remaining 40%.
“To be clear, the Men’s National Team demand was 75 to 100 percent of the World Cup prize money,” the statement said. “The Association, in an effort to adhere to the principle of pay equity, proposed that 60 per cent of the FIFA World Cup prize money be split between the two National Teams.”
That player sources and association sources indicate vastly different demands and offers only served to emphasize how complicated the situation is. Players are also reportedly upset that they will receive only two courtesy tickets each for their games in Qatar and families will have to pay for their own travel. Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis and his acting deputy general secretary flew to Vancouver on Saturday night with Sunday’s match still in doubt.
The embarrassing mishandling of Iran’s booking had left Herdman and his team with a three-game window containing only opposition from Concacaf, Panama followed by Nations League games against Curacao here in Vancouver and a date away from house with Honduras. By contrast, Canada’s opponents in Group F, Belgium, Croatia and Morocco, were testing themselves against their World Cup peers in this window. Continental rivals Mexico and the USA had booked a pair of friendlies against qualified teams.
“Every minute together is crucial as we prepare to work collectively for the best opportunity to play against some of the best in the world on the biggest stage,” Herdman said before the Panama game, which was due to see Davies return. to a Canada jersey for the first time in 2022 and potentially a first cap for exciting teenager Luca Koleosho, who recently made his La Liga debut for Espanyol.
Herdman’s commanding accomplishments came about through herculean solo work in which a support staff was obtained and assembled. But signs emerged that the association was not keeping pace with major advances in the field. Combined with the glory of the women’s gold medal in Tokyo last summer, the men’s progress had created huge fan demand for Canada’s replica kits, but they remained out of stock for a significant amount of time.
Former Canadian goalkeeper Craig Forrest had told The Guardian this week that Canada Soccer “felt understaffed” and that the men’s ranking following Olympic success had created a false impression that the national association had its house in order. .
“The only difference has been John Herdman, who has managed to guide the players through all the challenges and I don’t think he has changed enough,” Forrest said. “And now they are going to the biggest event on the planet multiplied by 10 and you have to be prepared for that whirlwind that comes from all sides.”
Reference-www.theguardian.com