Canada Soccer Statement: Safe Sport

Canada Soccer is immensely proud of our Women’s National Team Gold Medal performance at Tokyo 2020 and greatly appreciate the fans from coast to coast who supported this journey to the top of the podium.  We are pleased to be hosting the Celebration Tour to honor our Women’s National Team on this historic accomplishment. 

Equally important is Canada Soccer’s responsibility to recognize the role that our Women’s National Team has had, and continues to have, in advocating for issues that not only effect our soccer community, but our entire national sporting system. Our national team players are role models, and we support and commend them on their willingness to effect positive change in Canada. 

In recognition of this collective social responsibility, Canada Soccer has agreed that the following three requirements of the Canadian National Women’s National Team Players Association will be met:

1)  COMMITMENT – We call on Canada Soccer, its Board of Directors, its executives, and its coaching staff to commit publicly and unequivocally to Canada’s soccer community to continue to build a safe environment for our athletes.  We also call on Canada Soccer to apologize to those who have been victimized and abused while playing the sport they love.

2)  ACCOUNTABILITY – We call on Canada Soccer to initiate a transparent, third-party independent investigation of allegations against Bob Birarda during the time when he was employed by Canada Soccer at a mutually agreed time to understand fully what occurred and to develop recommendations and best practices to better protect our athletes.

3)  SAFE SPORT FOR ALL – We call on Canada Soccer to fully implement the Independent Safe Sport Mechanism. We call on the Government of Canada to protect vulnerable athletes by making the Independent Safe Sport Mechanism mandatory for all National Sport Organizations by the end of 2021.