Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis's sudden departure comes two weeks after the women’s national team threatened to boycott a high-profile tournament over what they described as biased treatment by Canada Soccer.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Nick Bontis resigned as president of the board of Canada Soccer on Monday amid calls for change from provincial and territorial federations, and as discontent continues to grow among the women’s and men’s national teams over a long-running labour dispute.
His sudden departure comes two weeks after the women’s national team threatened to boycott a high-profile tournament over what they described as biased treatment by Canada Soccer, and deep budget cuts to training programs in the run-up to this summer’s Women’s World Cup.
Under Mr. Bontis’s watch, a series of embarrassing incidents had marred the sport at a moment that it has captured the country’s imagination, after the women won gold at the Olympics in 2021 and the men conquered their continental division on the way to qualifying for the FIFA World Cup last November.
Players are wondering why Canada Soccer is crying poor after the organization signed a series of splashy sponsorships and the men won about $10-million in prize money for qualifying.
And the standing committee on Canadian heritage has summoned both Mr. Bontis and Earl Cochrane, the organization’s CEO, to appear during hearings it is convening next month to probe Canada Soccer’s governance and finances. Members of the women’s team have also been invited to appear.
On Monday evening, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said on Twitter that it was still important for Mr. Bontis to appear before the committee. Mr. Housefather also signalled that he would like to see the details of a deal between Canada Soccer and a private company known as Canadian Soccer Business that players have blamed for the sports organization’s troubled finances.
The heritage committee spent much of the latter half of 2022 examining Hockey Canada over its handling of sexual assault allegations, leading to resignations at the top of that sport organization.
The Canadian women’s soccer team labour dispute, explained
Last June, the national men’s team refused to play a match against Panama, saying they were upset over the state of negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement and issuing a series of demands that included an equal sharing of prize money between the men’s and women’s teams.
Canada Soccer agreed with the demand for equitable treatment and said it was working toward a single collective bargaining agreement that would cover both teams, but the players were frustrated by the slow progress. The women blasted Canada Soccer’s leadership for cutting budgets just as their World Cup preparations were moving into high gear, noting angrily that the organization had lavished the men with all the support they had required for their run.
The dispute became an international embarrassment for the organization, highlighted by an unusual moment of solidarity between the Canadian women and their American opponents prior to the kickoff of the first game of the SheBelieves Cup in Orlando, when the two sides stood shoulder to shoulder in a circle at the midfield line.
In a statement announcing his resignation, Mr. Bontis said that while he has “been one of the biggest proponents of equalizing the competitive performance environment for our Women’s National Team, I will unfortunately not be leading this organization when it happens. I acknowledge that this moment requires change.”
Earlier Monday, TSN reported that the 13 presidents of Canada’s provincial and territorial soccer federations had sent a letter to Mr. Bontis saying they had lost confidence in his leadership, and requesting his resignation.
Canada Soccer has lurched through a series of crises over the past year. Early this month, a news report suggested that John Herdman, the popular coach who had guided the women to Olympic bronze in 2012 and forged the men’s team into a victorious band of brothers, would be leaving to take over the New Zealand men’s team.
Canada Soccer and Mr. Herdman denied the report, but observers suggested the coach’s representatives might have been entertaining offers because of budget strains at the organization. (Mr. Herdman has not yet given an interview on the matter.)
After qualifying for the World Cup last March, the men began negotiations with Canada Soccer over how much of the prize money they would be able to keep for themselves. But Mr. Bontis said if the organization paid the men what they were demanding, there would be no money left over for other programs. And Ryan Fequet, a former board member, told The Globe that Canada Soccer had drawn millions of dollars from its reserve fund to pay for increased costs for the men’s qualifying run, and it hoped that investment could be repaid by prize money, to support other teams.
The players demanded Canada Soccer open its books and reveal the details of the deal with Canadian Soccer Business. In an open letter, the men alleged the deal had “hand cuffed” the organization, preventing it from capitalizing on soccer’s new popularity.
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The deal gives CSB the rights to all new corporate partnerships, such as with CIBC and Gatorade, which Canada Soccer signed last year, as well as the broadcast rights to the men’s and women’s national team games (except for those that occur under the auspices of FIFA, such as World Cup matches). It does not include prize money or jersey sales.
According to the contract, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail, CSB pays Canada Soccer a guaranteed annual fee, beginning with a $3-million payment in 2019 and escalating each year, topping out at $3.5-million in 2027. CSB has a one-way option to renew the contract for an additional 10 years, which players and others have criticized.
But while some reports have suggested the sponsorships may be worth tens of millions of dollars, the CEO of Canadian Soccer Business told The Globe those stories are “grossly exaggerated and irresponsible,” and that the company is still losing money on its payments to Canada Soccer.
“The multimillion-dollar guarantee that we make to Canada Soccer, we are not making money on today,” said Mark Noonan, in a recent interview. “We took a risk when nobody was there. We were investing in the hope and belief that the property was going to become more valuable. And we are still recovering from that initial investment.”
With a report from Rachel Brady