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At a training session last month in Kansas City for an away game against the KC Current, Racing Louisville goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer was injured when one of the goals she was standing in front of reportedly fell over and hit her in the leg.
Kim Björkegren, Racing Louisville’s frustrated head coach, complained that the goal was not up to standard and the quality of the field was below that expected for a professional team.
“These kinds of things can’t be a part of a professional league, to be honest,” Björkegren said.
As Racing Louisville forward Nadia Nadim pointed out, however, this should not have occurred under the collective bargaining agreement recently signed between the National Women’s Soccer League and the NWSL Players Association. Article 16.8 mandates that the host team provide the visitors “an appropriate facility for training the day prior to an away game.” It’s not clear exactly what makes a facility “appropriate,” but surely the players envisioned goals that are adequately staked down and won’t injure them, even if that wasn’t specifically mentioned in the CBA.
Although this incident was a freak occurrence — the Current said in a statement that the field is the same one they have provided to visitors all season — it serves as a reminder that the new NWSL CBA is not a cure-all for NWSL’s ills.
The league and the players have rightly called it a landmark deal, and it was universally lauded for securing players the kind of economic stability, autonomy and work conditions that professional athletes should expect — but it still requires vigilance to enforce it and experience to learn what the players might want to do differently the next time.
By drilling down on some of the provisions that were included, as well as those that were not, we can see how far the players have come and some of the looming issues that future CBAs will need to address.
What wins did the players get?
Minimum salaries
Arguably, the most critical accomplishment for the NWSL…
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Source : espn
