Canada’s women’s team has announced that they will not go on strike in response to legal threats from Canada Soccer.
Captain Christine Sinclair announced the strike on Friday due to concerns about funding cuts and a lack of pay equity.
The team announced that they would call off the strike because they “cannot afford the risks” that any action would entail.
Sinclair said the team were playing the upcoming SheBelieves Cup tournament “in protest”.
On February 17, Canada will face the United States in a multi-team tournament.
Canada Soccer “told us they consider our job action to be an unlawful strike,” according to a joint statement released by the players on Saturday.
Canada Soccer said it respected the players’ right to organise but they “were not and are not in a legal strike position under Ontario labour law”.
“We are being forced back to work for the time being,” Sinclair tweeted.
“This is not the end of the story. We will keep fighting for everything we deserve, and we will win.”
Women in Canada will go on strike, according to Sinclair.
On Saturday, the governing body met with representatives from the women’s player union.
The Canadian Soccer Players’ Association (CSPA) said in a statement that the players would resume training on Sunday.
They did, however, emphasize that they continue to believe the national team program is “unacceptable” and that Canada Soccer should do more to support the players.
“Canada Soccer told us that if we did not return to work – and did not commit today to playing against the United States – they would not only take legal action to force us back on the field, but they would also consider taking steps to collect what could be millions of dollars in damages from our players association and from each of the individual players currently in camp,” the statement said.