Following two busy days of meetings between the Canadian Football League and the CFL Players' Association, there is cautious optimism as the two sides will work together moving forward on their funding request to the federal government, TSN's Farhan Lalji reported.

"We have a lot of work to do," CFLPA president Solomon Elimimian told Lalji. "We understand we're stronger together, so we need to put our differences aside and come up with solutions together."

Lalji added the players expect to be involved in the next meeting with the federal government in the process of asking for up to $150 million in financial aid if the 2020 CFL season gets cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some Members of Parliament wanted to hear from the players as part of commissioner Randy Ambrosie's first pitch to them last week. 

There is no current timeline for the next meeting with the government.

In the meantime, the two sides will split up into working groups to deal with various elements of the CBA and the proposal to the government.

"We need to be able to work in parallel on the CBA and the funding request," Elimimian continued. "The pressure of this crisis will help to speed things up, but we still do them right."