Canada Soccer is expected to receive at least $10 million, potentially as much as $15 million, from FIFA for its World Cup participation. Typically, federations will pay bonuses to their national teams from this pool of money.
Negotiations between the players and federation began following Canada’s qualification to the World Cup on March 27 but hadn’t spoken in the same room until this window.
In response to the canceled friendly and ongoing public dispute, Canada Soccer called a press conference with president Nick Bontis and acting secretary general Earl Cochrane at BC Place on Sunday afternoon.
The tone of that media availability was tense, to say the least. Bontis labeled the players’ proposal as “untenable,” even if the association only had the men’s and women’s teams under their umbrella.
“We would like to have a fact-based discussion within the fiscal reality that Canada Soccer has to live with every day,” said Bontis. “Canada Soccer is committed to the principles of fairness and equity and we believe we presented a fair offer to the players. We benchmarked our offer against other national teams from around the world. On the issue of gender equity raised in the players’ letter, Canada Soccer’s offer also committed to provide the exact same terms to our women’s national team. As we move forward, Canada Soccer’s strategic commitment is to support all of our programs, from grassroots, right through to the elite first teams.”
