Men's soccer World Cup 2022- Qatar

[drtaf]

Surprised there wasn't a thread for this or maybe I'm blind and couldn't find it? Anyway, a few things prompted me to start it. 1. Was the obvious fact that Canada has qualified for first time since i think 86' so its going to be incredible to watch them play with the big boys on the world stage. 2. the country where i was born and raised-Wales, also just qualified for the first time in 64 yrs (58'). it's hard to explain what this means to a Welsh soccer fan but to put in perspective: I've watched all of the SCF's of the Oilers and this ranks pretty close up there (and its just qualifying for the tournament ). I feel i'm getting up there in age, but wasn't even born when Wales last competed (I guess this is what a leafs fan feels like)!!!

Lastly, and unfortunately, There's a developing story that the Canadian Mens team just went on strike and cancelled a friendly game because they say the Canadian soccer federation is taking too much of the prize money for qualifying for WC22 and that the players (both men and women) deserve a bigger piece of the pie. the CSF says that they want to keep 40% to improve grass roots soccer and split the 60% equally between the men and women's team. I dont know the whole story but I do know the CSF have a fairly sketchy reputation of not being upfront with their financials and have in the past been accused of pocketing money from FIFA etc and cheaping out on facilities and programs for both men and women (eg refusing to hire legit coaches etc). However, on the face of it, the split is in line with what some countries are doing, but others like USA have said 90% goes to the players and 10% goes to federation? The sums we are talking about here are around $15-20M cdn total; not huge but  would be significant  bonus for the players who are not yet stars in europe and especially to the women who dont get paid anywhere near this kind of money.  My feeling is that this should have been sorted out a long time ago and that the CSF probably didnt expect the men to qualify, but now all of a sudden, see $$$ signs in their eyes. It's a real shame that such an amazing achievement may soon become overshadowed by greed, resentment and a controversy that should never have happened in the first place. it all smells mickey mouse to me Anyone else have thoughts on this?