Canadian men upset at having to sit out FIFA international window in September

The Canadian men's soccer team, firing another broadside in its bitter labour battle with Canada Soccer, says it is "extremely disappointed" that it will be idle during next month's FIFA international window.

In a statement released via social media, the men accused Canada Soccer of "squandering a development opportunity only two short months before our 2023 CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal matches."

The men say they have made a "highly reasonable proposal" to Canada Soccer, conceding on major issues including compensation for last year's World Cup in Qatar.

In an interview last week with The Canadian Press, Canada Soccer's interim general secretary said the federation had tried to come up with opponents for the September window.

"The challenges that we have with respect to financial constraints are, I think, well documented," said Jason deVos, a former Canada captain. "We are not sitting in a situation where we're able to spend significant amounts of money to ensure opponents.

"The reality in the international sphere now is you want play against the top teams, you have to secure their appearances and that typically comes with an appearance fee or covering some of the costs or all of the costs of their travel, their accommodations and what have you.

"We explored every opportunity for September that we possibly could."

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DeVos said Canada Soccer had a "very good opportunity" in early May to book a friendly in Europe in September.

"Unfortunately we just weren't in a position to secure that at that moment in time," said deVos, who was named interim general secretary on April 25. "I still needed to get my feet under the desk and get a better sense of