COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Canadian Lacrosse Association and the National Lacrosse Team Players’ Association ratified an agreement Saturday that will allow Canada to defend its men’s field world championship next month.
A tentative agreement between the two sides was reached June 8 with the help of the Federation of International Lacrosse.
"The CLA is pleased to have reached an agreement with the NLTPA that will allow Canada to be represented by its best players in Israel," CLA president Joey Harris said in a release. "I’d like to thank both groups for their extraordinary work over these past few months. We negotiated in good faith and in the spirit of compromise to make the necessary commitments to our national team players, while ensuring our organization can continue to deliver on the other elements of our mandate and support our over 60,000 members."
The CLA had broken off communication with the NLTPA last month, deepening a standoff that threatened the country’s participation in the July 12-21 world championship in Netanya, Israel.
Specifics on the agreement were not available. According to the release, the CLA and the NLTPA were able to "resolve their differences thanks to a shared vision for the growth and promotion of lacrosse in Canada."
Canada’s lacrosse players had refused to play in international tournaments until the CLA could provide them better health insurance and take steps to re-establish its status as a charity with the Canadian Revenue Agency.
The conflict began when the CLA had its charitable status revoked by the Canadian Revenue Agency in 2010 for issuing more than $60.7 million in donation receipts for abusive transactions through tax shelters.
Players that compete for Canada pay for many of their own expenses and without the charitable status, the CLA could not issue them tax receipts. The CLA said the revoked charitable status also hurt its ability to fundraise.
Canada has participated in every men’s field world championship since the event’s inception in 1967 and is the defending champion from the 2014 tournament in Denver.
"The players are very thankful to have reached an accord with the CLA that will allow them to represent Canada and defend their World Championship title won in Denver in 2014," said NLTPA representative Gary Gait. "Every athlete dreams of representing their country at the highest levels of competition in their sport and this agreement allows the players the opportunity to do just that."
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