National teams forced to stand up for their rights
IRELAND
AT a press conference in Liberty Hall last April, the Irish soccer team presented a united front where they made a list of reasonable demands to the FAI. Among the issues, they sought gym membership and access to a nutritionist with all nonprofessional players seeking loss of earnings for representing Ireland.
The returning of tracksuits hogged the headlines as PFAI representative Stuart Gilhooly suggested that the Ireland women’s team were being treated like ‘dirt on the FAI’s shoe’.
USA
A few weeks before this year’s Ice Hockey World Championship, the US national team, defending champions and hosts, vowed to sit out the tournament unless their grievances over fair pay were listened to.
The demands seemed reasonable – including getting the same treatment that the men’s team get which included the allowance of bringing a guest to competitions, business class airfare to games and disability insurance.
They also wanted benefits like childcare, maternity leave and more competitive games during the year.
Despite their preparations being hampered by the threatened strike, they were crowned world champions, after victory over Canada.
BRAZIL
EARLIER this month, five of Brazil’s best women soccer players quit the national side after their coach Emily Lima was sacked. Among those that walked were Cristiane and Francielle, two long-serving stars.
Their stand was supported by a group of former players who published an open letter criticising the federation. ‘We, the players, have invested years of our own lives and all of our energy to build this team and this sport to its strength today,’ read the letter, which was signed by eight former players, including Cristiane and Francielle.
‘Yet we, and almost all other Brazilian women, are excluded from the leadership and decision-making for our own team and our own sport.’
DENMARK
DENMARK’S World Cup qualifier against Sweden on Friday was cancelled because of an ongoing pay dispute. The Danish team, who reached the final of Euro 2017, refused to play a friendly against Holland last month in protest over pay and conditions.
‘It is a historically bad day for the women’s team and for Danish football overall,’ said Kim Hallberg, the vice-president of the Danish Football Association (DBU). ‘It is regrettable but also grotesque that we are in a situation where players will not meet up for major international matches, even though we have offered better terms.’
The DBU claim it had offered to increase the investment in the women’s team by two million Danish Krone (€268,690) per year, to be used on higher salaries, bonuses and strengthening the staff around the team.
The men’s team offered to give up their 500,00 Kr (€67,172) annual bonus for the women, but this was rejected.
NIGERIA
The Nigerian women’s soccer team staged a protest march to parliament last march, demanding payments of bonuses for winning the Africa Women’s Cup of Nations for the eighth time.
Following a two-week sit-in at their hotel in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, more than a dozen players, bearing placards, protested outside the National Assembly. The government of Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian President who had tweeted his congratulations to the team following their success, later agreed to release more than $1 million to the team.