Canada’s women’s soccer team took their dispute with their national association onto the pitch on Thursday by wearing purple jerseys with “Enough is Enough” written on the front ahead of their SheBelieves Cup opener against the US.
The team’s protest is the latest escalation in their dispute with Canada Soccer over pay equity issues.
“Tonight, our players will be wearing purple as a symbol of protest,” the Canadian Players Association said in a statement. “Considering the current circumstances, our players will continue to wear purple until our association has standards in place that ensure equal treatment and opportunity.”
Photo: Reuters
Canada wore the purple T-shirts during warmups at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida, before changing into their traditional red kit, but wearing purple tape on their wrists.
Purple has historically been associated with efforts to achieve gender equality.
Canada lost the match 2-0.
The Olympic champions had boycotted training last Saturday while demanding immediate changes, but reversed course later that day as Canada Soccer called their strike unlawful and threatened legal action.
The squad said they would play under protest at the four-nation SheBelieves Cup.
In a media call on Tuesday, the players said the “disgusting” discrepancy between the Canada men’s and women’s soccer programs became obvious last year in Qatar, where Canada’s men made their first FIFA World Cup appearance in 37 years in November.
Canada Soccer spent US$11 million on the men’s program in 2021 and US$5.1 million on the women.
Canada Soccer has said it has a “proven track record” of supporting the women’s game and that pay equity was “at the core” of ongoing player negotiations.
US forward Mallory Swanson scored both goals against Canada.
She connected with a cross from Alex Morgan for a stunning finish in the seventh minute before slotting home in the 34th minute following a defensive mistake by Canada.
Canada captain Christine Sinclair said the team were “mentally exhausted.”
“Either we’re fighting for everything and come out on fire or we come out flat, and I think you saw those first 10, 15 minutes, we came out flat,” Sinclair said.
“I think we looked like a team that was tired, a team that’s mentally exhausted, coming up against a team, I mean, they’re defending World Cup champions for a reason and you have to be at your best to compete with them, and we weren’t tonight,” she said.
Canada next face Brazil tomorrow before taking on Japan three days later.
Brazil defeated Japan 1-0 in the tournament’s opening match, Debinha scoring the only goal.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
RSS