John Herdman’s Response to Canadian Men’s Boycott Lacked Real Support

John Herdman ahead of his team’s Concacaf Nations League match vs. Curacao, addressed reporters following his players’ protests for compensation, transparency and equal pay.

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Not a lot of support here from the manager. While he ‘gets’ why the players did it, he did not really show support. He talked about how he’s proud of the team on the pitch, but never went beyond that to actually push for the players on this issue.

It was almost all boilerplate manager presser stuff about heart and talking about on the pitch exclusively. Which is disappointing and I’d hope it has no effect on players emotions/psyche as they line up to play tonight.

The players will at some point have to come forward and speak about this and the missed game as they rty and get a deal done fairly quick. The Canadian Federation meanwhile, do seem at least for now, engaged in talks to get that deal.

These things take time though and Herdman not explicitly supporting te players could do more harm than good.