PFACan gears up for talks with CPL over recognizing players' union
In a 1-on-1 chat with TFC Republic, PFACan legal counsel Paul Champ discusses the upcoming talks with the CPL, the league needing to be more transparent, and much more.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Premier League released a statement that it had agreed to exploratory discussions regarding collective bargaining with The Professional Footballers Association Canada (PFACan) once the 2021 regular season concluded.
PFACan had reached out to the CPL several times for more than a year starting in the Spring of 2020, asking to receive automatic recognition as a players' union from the league. For the longest time the CPL didn't have any kind of appetite to discuss such matters, but it has since had a change of heart and will sit down with PFACan in 2o22.
In part 1 of a one-on-one Q&A with TFC Republic, PFACan legal counsel Paul Champ discussed the upcoming talks with the league, the issues foremost on the minds of players, his views on how the CPL has dealt with players in terms of contracts, and how he feels the league can be more transparent.
In part 2 below, Champ talks about the next steps PFACan will take before it talks to the CPL this off-season, the growing trend of young CPL players retiring, if players will get the money back from their 25 per cent pay cut, the PFACan’s claim that players' rights were secretly distributed by the league to Atletico Ottawa in 2020, and more.
