Canada Soccer president predicts pay equity talks will produce 'epic, historical' deal with players

Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis predicts the ongoing labour talks with the Canadian men's and women's teams will produce "an epic, historical deal for pay equity."

The association's collective bargaining agreement with the women's team expired last December. The World Cup-bound men recently formed their own players' association and are in talks for a first CBA.

Bontis said he connected with captain Christine Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt and other senior women's players as well as their legal counsel in late January, telling them "something very very different was going to come to the [bargaining] table."

Bontis was speaking Wednesday on "Behind the Bench," a weekly coaching webcast presented by the National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada (NSCAC).

Bontis said historically most national teams have negotiated a percentage of World Cup prize money, usually ranging between 20 and 30 percent.

The Canadian men — returning to the soccer showcase for the first time in 36 years — wanted a higher percentage, which Bontis said "as a fan" he thought they deserved.

"They had done something for the first time in 36 years ... But I knew that we had to do it under the context of pay equity. So anything that was about 50 percent would have been untenable."

"Because it also meant that we would have to pay the women dollar-for-dollar that same amount and you can't pay more than 100 percent of the money available," he added.

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FIFA paid out $400 million in prize money at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Champion France collected $38 million while teams that finished 17th through 32nd each got $8 million.

Bontis said an agreement with the women is "95 percent of the way there." But the men's and women's deals are linked, because of pay equity.

He said talks with the men have really only been going six or seven weeks, with the players not hiring legal counsel or registering as a players association until late August.

"I really really do anticipate and hope that we can get something done prior to kicking a ball in Doha," he said. "But if we don't, that's O.K. as well. Because everything, of course, is retroactive. Anything that we negotiate will always go into the pockets of the men and the women. Nothing will be removed and frankly on the women's side, regardless of what we will negotiate with the men, the compensation piece is going to be higher than they've received in the past."

He said he hopes pay equity extends to FIFA prize money, "specifically when it pertains to 2026."