The Canada national football team could not play a World Cup pre-season game against Panama due to a players’ strike. A match scheduled for Sunday evening in Vancouver had to be canceled at short notice after players surrounding FC Bayern Munich full-back Alfonso Davies published a joint statement. That’s why professionals don’t feel valued enough. Negotiations between the association and the team on payment of financial compensation had previously failed. The statement was signed with, among other things, the words: “We are brothers. We are not afraid of anything.” Relations with the Canada Soccer Association have been strained over the years, the players wrote. “And now Canada Soccer has treated our team with disregard and jeopardized our efforts to raise the standards and advance football in Canada,” the team said. Activists demand fair payment for the men’s and women’s national teams – including 40 percent of the prize money for participating in the World Cup in Qatar. Canada Soccer initially made negotiations “unnecessarily lengthy” and then made a poor offer, the team said. Canada is in the final of the World Cup for the first time since 1986. The Canadian’s next game is already scheduled for Thursday. It is not yet clear whether the team will face Curaçao in the Nations League.