The Canadian Football League (CFL) has submitted a final revised offer to its Players Association, commissioner Randy Ambrosie said Tuesday. The new proposal addresses the Association’s main concerns, he said, which are the ratification bonus and the ratio of Canadian players.
The commissioner specified that the nine teams would receive a million dollars as a ratification bonus. The agreement also proposes a reduction in the number of naturalized players (American players who have spent five years in the CFL or at least three with the same team) from four to one. The number of Canadian starters would also drop from seven to six.
Players have until midnight Thursday to decide whether or not to accept the revised agreement.
If the players refuse it and go back on strike, the training camps that are currently taking place will be suspended, Commissioner Ambrosie warns. The CFL will not house or feed its players as it has done since the start of the strike.
The players rejected Monday evening a first tentative agreement that their union recommended they accept, but they were back in training Tuesday morning in accordance with their old collective agreement, signed in 2019 and expired since May 14.
The rejected tentative agreement was reached just four days after players from seven of the nine clubs went on strike, the second work stoppage in league history and the first since 1974.
Time is running out for the CFL, however, whose preseason schedule is set to kick off on Friday with two games: the Ottawa Redblacks are set to host the Toronto Argonauts, while the Edmonton Elks will visit the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg.
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