Portland Timbers supporters to join Whitecaps protest walkout Friday

Vancouver Whitecaps supporters will have company on Friday night when they stage another protest walkout, this one during the Vancouver-PortlandMLSmatch at B.C. Place.

Southsiders vice president Paul Sabourin-Hertzog says members of Portland's supporters groupswill be joining the exodus from the stands scheduled for the 35th minute of the game.

"We expect that there will be a large number of travelling supporters who will choose to act in solidarity with us," said Sabourin-Hertzog.

Members of Whitecaps support groups, the Southsiders and the Curva Collective have staged protest walkouts at the previous two Whitecaps home games to express their solidarity with a group of players from the now-defunct Whitecaps women's team.

'Some things are bigger than rivalry'

In a written statement, the Portland Timbers support group, the Timbers Army, wrote that it"will be in the stands in BC Place in full voice to cheer on the boys in green as they take on the Whitecaps, Cascadian rivals on the pitch. But some things are bigger than rivalry."

"Bottom line: We support human rights, and we support our Cascadian rivals in their fight for safe environments for athletes. To that end, we are sharing this message from Southsiders and Curva Collective and we encourage our supporters to participate in the walkout of the stadium [...]in solidarity."

The women have been asking for a meeting with Whitecaps ownership to discuss the club's handling of the allegedharassmentand bullying the players experienced a decade ago undera former Whitecaps coach.

Whitecaps executives and co-owner Jeff Mallet have met with supporters twice, including Tuesday evening,but Sabourin-Hertzog says the groups still aren't satisfied with the club's handling of the scandal.

"We are calling for the walkout to continue," he said. "Our reasons for doing this are because we were really hoping to leave the meeting with an arrangement for the Whitecaps ownership to meet the players as they've requested and it looks like that is not going to happen."

"Additionally, we spoke clearly and honestly with the Whitecaps to say that we really disagree with their media strategy and how they have preferred to issuevery intermittent statements and notdirectly answer questions put to them by the media," he said. "I think it's pretty clear they've selected to speak to media partners people with which the Whitecaps have a direct relationship or who broadcast their games."

Sabourin-Hertzogsays he wants to it to be clear the Southsiders are not protesting the current Whitecaps team.

"This is not a protest aimed at the players on the pitch or [coach] Marc Dos Santos," he said. "This has always been a protest against the actions of executives at the top level."