Canada's women's soccer team faces some big games as its labour fight simmers

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A big year for the Canadian women's soccer team has quickly turned chaotic as the squad gets set to begin the final leg of its journey to this summer's World Cup.

Last Friday, the reigning Olympic champions announced they were going on strike over cuts to their program by Canada Soccer. They returned the next day after the national governing body threatened legal action. But the team made it clear that they'll be playing the SheBelieves Cup — an important World Cup warmup event that kicks off tomorrow in the United States — under protest against what they see as inequitable working conditions.

The players' grievances boil down to their feeling that they're not being afforded the same resources the Canadian men's squad received in the lead-up to its much-celebrated World Cup return last year. The women cited their downsized training camp for the SheBelieves Cup and the lack of a scheduled home game before the Women's World Cup as examples of Canada Soccer squeezing them at a time when it ought to be flush with cash from the meteoric rise of its national teams.

At the root of this dissonance is a short-sighted deal Canada Soccer made in 2018 with Canadian Soccer Business, an entity formed by founders of the men's Canadian Premier League ahead of its inaugural season. Under the 10-year agreement, CSB controls (and gets the revenue from) the sponsorship and broadcast contracts for the Canadian men's and women's national teams in exchange for a guaranteed payment to Canada Soccer — reportedly $3-4 million a year currently.

This may have seemed like a good deal for Canada