Canada’s Women’s National Team (CWNT) opened up about the numerous problems they have been facing and what they will do in response. On February 10th, 2023, Jordyn Huitema, a 21-year-old forward on Canada’s national team, posted a picture that illuminated what the team has been going through.
The image posted on Huitema’s Instagram highlights why Canada’s Women’s National Team will participate in the SheBelieves Cup under protest. The SheBelieves Cup is an international soccer tournament that occurs yearly and is composed of four teams. This cup is part of the SheBelieves movement, inspired by the U.S. Women’s National Team, which “encourages young women and girls to reach their dreams, athletic or otherwise.” From February 16th to the 22nd, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the USA will compete in the eighth edition of this tournament.
During the tournament, Canada’s team will be under protest for various reasons, as expressed in a social media post. On CNN, it says that one of the players, Janine Beckie, noted: “The team was ‘operating under a protest,’ and on Wednesday during their training session, the players wore their jerseys inside out.”
The post explained their concerns regarding Canada Soccer's inability to support the CWNT adequately. The players wrote that there had been multiple cuts. These cuts include the number of players on the team, staff invited into camps, limited youth teams’ activities, and more. They also mentioned the unequal preparation treatment they received compared to the Men’s National Team for the World Cup. The social media post said, “we have been told, quite literally, that Canada Soccer cannot adequately fund the Women's National Team, and they have waited to tell us this until now when we are less than six months from the World Cup.”
The CWNT demands that Canada Soccer “must live up to its public commitment to gender equity and its obligation as the national governing body for soccer in Canada to advance the sport, not drag it down,” as written in the statement posted on Instagram. The desire and determination of the CWNT are evident in the statement they released.
The CWNT ended its statement by saying that it will find leadership elsewhere if these basic standards are not met. They also “warned” Canada Soccer by saying they are willing to do anything to bring this topic to light and to “force Canada Soccer to start to support the national teams properly.”
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