Canadian men’s soccer team to create players’ association

TSN Senior Correspondent

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Players on the Canadian men’s national soccer team have agreed to form a players’ association to collectively bargain with Canada Soccer, Toronto FC midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye said in an interview.

Kaye, who has 35 caps for Canada, said that 47 of 50 players involved in the effort to organize have signed union cards and that the players are receiving legal advice from Toronto-based law firm Aird & Berlis LLP and Williams & Connolly LLP, a law firm in Washington that has advised players on the U.S. national men’s soccer team.

Every player who has been called to a national team training camp since Jan. 1, 2021, was given a union card, Kaye said on Friday.

“Before we got to this point with the national team in terms of success on the field, we never felt there was a need to address the business side of it and what the players would get from FIFA,” Kaye said.

“We have questions that need to be answered about World Cup money and about other issues as well. What are training camps going to look like? What are flights for players moving forward going to be like? As soon as we got to the World Cup, we felt like we needed to really set a tone on where we leave this program when all our time is done. We don’t want to leave that to chance. We needed to come together to form a union.”

The new players’ group will be called the Canadian Men's National Soccer Team Players Association (CMNSTPA), Kaye said, adding that legal documents to create the association were signed on Thursday.

The men’s team players have been battling for months with Canada Soccer over how much money they will be paid for qualifying for this year’s World Cup. Kaye said the team has not yet approached Canada Soccer