Ready to Board: Ciara McCormack, a Canadian trailblazer fighting abuse in football

Are there barriers to women in North American football?

There is sexism but I’d say it’s more subtle than other places. In both Canada and the U.S., most money and power in the game is male-dominated. In Canada, we are one of the only countries in the world that I would say has gone backwards in terms of opportunities for women in the last 15 years. Despite our national team being top 10 in the world, there are less high-quality semi-pro teams than before and we still don’t have a national league for women. There’s an attitude we should just be quietly grateful for the crumbs we are given. With my Irish roots, I feel a bit like mixed-martial arts fighter Conor McGregor because I’m outspoken. I’m not afraid to take a punch and give a punch.

Can you give some examples.

I was a whistleblower about a coach involved with the Canadian national team back in 2008 who was fired quietly for sexual harassment. I wrote a blog exposing the whole story in 2019. I was not a victim but I knew the whole story and I was definitely bullied and experienced an awful environment along with many others. I knew it wasn’t right he was back coaching in Canada at the time the federation was talking about safe sport. I found the hypocrisy appalling.

What happened next?

He had also been a coach with Vancouver Whitecaps and thousands of people started to walk out in protest at the team’s Major League Soccer (MLS) games because the Whitecaps appeared to take no responsibility. Away teams fans also walked out. We had tried for 10 years to have the story told. I was so grateful that people wanted to hear about it. I know victims don’t usually get their voice heard. One of the most harmful parts of abuse is being silenced. After all the publicity, more victims came forward and the coach was arrested and charged with nine offences.