Canadian women's soccer team tells MPs their program is being asked to do more with less | Canada News Media
Connect with us

Sports

Canadian women’s soccer team tells MPs their program is being asked to do more with less

Published

2 years ago

 on

Members of the Olympic champion Canadian women’s soccer team told a committee of MPs Thursday that their program is being held back by a lack of support from their governing body.

The team, like its male counterpart, is embroiled in a bitter labour dispute with Canada Soccer, the sport’s governing body. Team captain Christine Sinclair and players Janine Beckie, Sophie Schmidt and Quinn brought their case before members of the heritage committee on Thursday.

“There is no greater honour as an athlete than to step on the competitive stage and represent our country,” Sinclair said in her opening remarks. “These have been some of the greatest moments of our lives. But they’ve not come without frustration.”

WATCH | ‘We don’t trust Canada Soccer:’ Christine Sinclair

 

‘We don’t trust Canada Soccer:’ Christine Sinclair testifies at committee on sport safety

1 hour ago

Duration 0:44

Addressing a heritage committee hearing looking into safe sports, Women’s Team Canada captain Christine Sinclair describes a meeting she and her teammates had with executives of Canada Soccer to negotiate their compensation.

The players gave a scathing review of Canada Soccer, saying the organization paid male players five times as much as it did female players in 2021. But they said pay equity is only a part of their fight.

They said the women’s program overall receives less support. They said the team has been holding training camps without fully staffed medical and training teams.

“We as players sometimes have to make choices about which medical treatments to receive when staff physiotherapists are stretched,” Quinn said. They added that the team also has had to cut the number of players at camp, making it unable to run full field drills.

Members of the women’s team say they want the same support and backing ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand as the men’s team received before its soccer showcase last year in Qatar. Both teams want Canada Soccer to open its books and explain why its programs are being cut this year.

Julia Grosso of Canada celebrates with teammates after scoring the winning penalty in the shootout in the gold medal game at the Tokyo Olympics. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

“We’ve … been successful with less and have been expected to do more with less,” Beckie said. “We’re so sick and tired of having to fight the same battle.”

Sinclair told the committee she brought the team’s concerns to former Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis last year but was largely ignored.

“The president of Canada Soccer listened to what I had to say and then later in the meeting referred back to it as, ‘What was it Christine was bitching about?'” Sinclair said.

The women’s team members, whose previous labour deal expired at the end of 2021, have struck an agreement in principle with Canada Soccer on compensation for 2022 but say other issues have yet to be resolved.

MP calls situation an ’embarrassment’

Conservative MP and committee member Kevin Waugh said the way the team is being treated is an “embarrassment.”

“I have a granddaughter playing soccer because of you,” he said. “It’s not because of the men’s team. It’s not because of [Canada Soccer]. It’s because of the Canadian women’s soccer team — what you’ve accomplished in the last ten plus years.”

Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner noted the meeting was taking place the day after International Women’s Day and asked the players if they could think of any rational reason why Canada Soccer would provide less support to the women’s team.

“Does it cost less to train women players?” Hepfner asked.

“No. We play with the same sized ball, we kick at the same sized goal, we play on the same sized field, we play for the same amount of minutes,” Beckie responded.

The players also said that the issues with Canada Soccer go beyond the national team. Schmidt told MPs that the organization is responsible for developing women’s soccer in Canada, but has cut youth programming.

“Canada Soccer treats the women’s game as an afterthought,” she said, adding that failure to develop the game would put the future of the national team at risk.

“The system for developing players is broken and women are making the national team by chance, not by design,” she said.

Canada Soccer released details of its proposed collective bargaining agreement with both national teams on Thursday, saying it’s time to get a deal done.

“We’ve been negotiating in good faith and want to get to a resolution with our national teams. In order to get there, we need both of our national teams to agree. Our women deserve to be paid equally and they deserve the financial certainty going into the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup,” Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane said in a media statement.

Canada Soccer says its proposed labour deal would pay both teams the same match fee, with the squads sharing equally in competition prize money. And it says the Olympic champion women’s team would become the second-highest-paid women’s national squad among FIFA’s 211 member associations, presumably behind the top-ranked U.S.

But Canada Soccer acknowledges that equal pay does not mean equal dollars when it comes to team budgets, saying the competitive calendar and the FIFA World Cup qualification pathway for the men comes with “very different costs.”

The players were asked what they made of Canada Soccer’s preemptive release of the proposed agreement.

Beckie said they felt “disrespected” by the release of information that was meant to be kept at the bargaining table, adding that some of the information released by Canada Soccer on Thursday was new to them. She said she would say no more on the matter.

“We don’t feel it’s the right place to stoop down to that level,” she said. “We’re here to speak about this [equity] issue.”

Canada Soccer officials are due to appear before the committee on March 20.

Source link

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Sports

Ravens win fifth straight game by beating Bucs 41-31

Published

19 hours ago

 on

October 22, 2024

By

 

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Lamar Jackson threw for 281 yards and five touchdowns, helping the Baltimore Ravens overcome an early double-digit deficit and extend their National Football League winning streak to five games with a 41-31 victory Monday night over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who lost their top two receivers to injuries.

The two-time NFL MVP improved to 23-1 against NFC teams, the best mark by a quarterback against an opposing conference in NFL history. He’s 3-0 against the Bucs (4-3), who faded after taking a 10-0 lead with help from the 100th TD reception of Mike Evans’ career.

Evans departed with a hamstring injury after Baker Mayfield tried to connect with him in the end zone again, and late in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach, leading Bucs receiver Chris Godwin was carted off the field with a left ankle injury. ESPN declined to show replays of Godwin’s injury, which appeared to be severe.

Jackson completed 17 of 22 passes without an interception, including TD throws of nine and four yards to Mark Andrews. He also tossed scoring passes of 49 yards to Rashod Bateman, 18 yards to Justice Hill and 11 yards to Derrick Henry, who rushed for 169 yards on 15 carries. Bateman had four catches for 121 yards.

The Ravens (5-2) rebounded from a slow start on defence, with cornerback Marlon Humphrey turning the game around with a pair of second-quarter interceptions — one of them in the Baltimore end zone. Jackson led a four-play, 80-yard TD drive after the first pick, and the second interception set up Justin Tucker’s 28-yard field goal for a 17-10 halftime lead.

Elsewhere in the NFL:

—

CARDINALS 17 CHARGERS 15

GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Kyler Murray ran for a 44-yard touchdown and led the Cardinals on a drive that set up Chad Ryland’s 32-yard field goal as time expired, and Arizona rallied for a win over Los Angeles.

Cameron Dicker kicked his fifth field goal of the night — this one from 40 yards — to give the Chargers a 15-14 lead with 1:54 left. But the Cardinals (3-4) quickly moved into field goal range, aided by an unnecessary roughness call on Cam Hart that cost Los Angeles (3-3) 15 yards.

Arizona followed that with a bruising 33-yard run by James Conner, who finished with 101 yards on the ground. That eventually set up Ryland’s short field goal and a Cardinals celebration.

It was a frustrating night for the Chargers’ offence, which gained 395 yards but couldn’t find the end zone. Justin Herbert completed 27 of 39 passes for 349 yards.

Dicker booted field goals of 59, 50, 28, 47 and 40 yards, the first of which tied a franchise record for distance.

Murray ran for a spectacular touchdown early in the fourth quarter, rolling to his left before turning on the jets, beating safety Junior Colston to the sideline and then coasting into the end zone for a 14-9 lead.

It was Murray’s second long touchdown run in three weeks after he scored on a 50-yard sprint against San Francisco. It was also Murray’s 20th career game with a touchdown pass and run.

Murray completed 14 of 26 passes for 145 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

Struggling Whitecaps, Timbers set to meet in MLS wild-card matchup

Published

19 hours ago

 on

October 22, 2024

By

 

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps have been here before — literally and figuratively.

With the season hanging in the balance, the ‘Caps were dealt a blow last week when the club learned it wouldn’t be able to play a post-season wild-card game in its home stadium, B.C. Place, due to a scheduling conflict.

The Whitecaps ceded home field advantage to their regional rival, the Portland Timbers. The two clubs will battle for the final playoff spot in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference in Oregon on Wednesday.

The winner will face No. 1-seed Los Angeles FC in a best-of-three first-round series, starting Sunday.

An unforeseen hurdle like a change of venues is nothing new for the ‘Caps, said defender Ranko Veselinovic, who was part of the team that was forced to relocate first to Portland, then Utah during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It feels that always something happens for us, but it is what it is. So far, we’ve managed to always find solutions for those situations,” said the Serbian centre back. “But I hope this team can find it one more time, because we need it this time. And it will be a really nice feeling in those circumstances to go in, win and go face L.A. in the next round.”

Vancouver (13-13-8) heads into the post-season winless in its last seven MLS games and with losses in four straight after dropping a 2-1 road decision to Real Salt Lake on Saturday.

The skid followed a run that saw the club go 4-1-3 across all competitions between late August and late September.

There’s just one way to return to that level, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini.

“The work is the only way to do it. Try to put the work in and try to put the team in a way that they’re going to regain the form and the way that they were in the past,” he said.

Despite the final score, Sartini has seen positives in the way his team played in its two most recent losses.

“I think already we turned the corner,” he said. “And we start from there to build and build and build.”

Facing challenges together can help a team build, whether it’s a winless skid or an unexpected hurdle, said Vancouver’s captain Ryan Gauld.

“When you’re going through adversity, that’s when people start to raise their voice a little bit. You get good when the problems arise, you get a lot of people coming together to make sure we get out of it,” said the Scottish attacking midfielder.

“And we’ve had a tough time the last few games, but everyone’s aware of the fact that we’re a much better team than we’ve shown, and we need to find a way to get back to doing what we’re good at.”

The ‘Caps face a familiar foe in the Timbers (12-11-11).

The two sides have already met three times this season, with each coming out of the series with a win, a loss and a draw.

Portland has also struggled in recent weeks and are winless in their last five MLS outings (0-1-4).

The Timbers boast one of the league’s top offensive units, though, with threats such as Evander. The Brazilian midfielder notched 15 goals and 19 assists during the regular season.

To earn a win on Wednesday, the Whitecaps must be solid defensively, Gauld said.

“They must be one of the best attacks in the league. They have a lot of good players, and they can hurt you if you switch off,” he said. “So just being concentrated from the first whistle, and just being hard to beat, being stuffy. Just being on it for the full 90 minutes.”

A victory in the wild-card match would guarantee Vancouver at least one home playoff game, a factor that Sartini said would be a big reward for his group.

The entire team relished the experience of playing post-season soccer in front of more than 30,000 fans last year, the coach said, and the desire to repeat the feat is high as the club heads to Portland.

“Everyone is happy to be in the playoffs. So we don’t have to be moody to be in the playoff. And we go in there, we’re play one of our rivals. So it’s gonna be a nice game to show up and to play our best game possible.”

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (13-13-8) AT PORTLAND TIMBERS (12-11-11)

Wednesday, Providence Park

HISTORY BOOKS: This will mark the seventh all-time post-season meeting between the Timbers and ‘Caps, dating back to 1975. The last time the two clubs squared off in a playoff game was during the Western Conference semifinal in 2015. Portland won the two-game aggregate series and went on to hoist the MLS Cup.

ROAD WARRIORS: The ‘Caps boasted a 7-6-4 record on the road during regular-season play — better than the 6-7-4 showing they posted at B.C. Place.

POST-SEASON PARTY: Wednesday will mark the first time the Timbers have hosted a post-season game since 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 22, 2024.

Source link

Continue Reading

Sports

No rugby, field hockey, badminton, triathlon or cricket at leaner 2026 Commonwealth Games

Published

19 hours ago

 on

October 22, 2024

By

 

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Scotland conceived rugby sevens in the 1880s yet it will not feature in the scaled-back 2026 Commonwealth Games hosted by Glasgow.

Other sports that have also been dropped include field hockey, triathlon, badminton, Twenty20 cricket, squash, and diving.

The Games will have a 10-sport program in four venues. Athletics and swimming are compulsory while there will also be track cycling, gymnastics, netball, weightlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and 3×3 basketball.

There will also be integrated para events in six of those sports: Athletics, swimming, track cycling, weightlifting, bowls and basketball.

The Games will take place from July 23-Aug. 2 after Glasgow stepped in when the Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year because of rising costs.

It was not easy to decide which sports to include, Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Ian Reid told the BBC on Tuesday.

“I think everybody recognises that these events need to be more affordable, lighter and we would have loved to have all of our sports and all of our athletes competing but unfortunately it’s just not deliverable or affordable for this time frame,” Reid said.

Athletes and support staff will be housed in hotels. Around 3,000 athletes are expected to compete from up to 74 Commonwealth nations and territories representing a combined total of 2.5 billion people, a third of the world’s entire population.

More than 500,000 tickets made available for spectators.

The Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Katie Sadleir said: “The 2026 Games will be a bridge to the Commonwealth Games of tomorrow, an exciting first step in our journey to reset and redefine the Games as a truly collaborative, flexible and sustainable model for the future that minimises costs, reduces the environmental footprint, and enhances social impact. In doing so, increasing the scope of countries capable of hosting.”

Glasgow hosted the event in 2014 at a cost of more than 540 million pounds.

___

AP sports:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending

Exit mobile version