It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, for those with a passion for football. But will it pay the bills?

The Canadian Football League is embroiled in a dispute over its internship program after it last week posted over a dozen openings for Toronto-based roles that pay a monthly honorarium rather than a minimum wage salary, despite encouraging applications from recent college graduates with work experience under their belt.

The 50-year-old football institution has since removed the postings, but not before a flurry of caustic commentary on social media took the organization to task.

“As an entry level fan, I will now be requesting tickets for $0/ticket as part of a new free game internship scheme. If I enjoy the game I may purchase something from concession as an honorarium,” said one user of popular news gathering site Reddit.

“I feel bad for the kids in high school, college and university who are asked by companies, apparently in all seriousness, to work for them for remuneration equal to jack squat,” read another comment.

A spokesperson for the CFL said the postings had been assessed by the organization’s legal team who believed them to be in compliance with the law, but that the postings had been taken down Friday for “review.”

“Our program has been designed to provide extensive benefits to interns. We are currently reviewing the program as well as the postings in question. We will not be filling any intern positions until the review of our program has been completed,” communications director Paulo Senra said.

The emailed statement did not address a number of specific questions from the Star, including the dollar figure of the proposed honorarium.

The seven-and-a-half month internships, which are mainly based in Toronto, include roles in marketing, web development, social media, and communications. According to the online postings seen by the Star, applicants must be working towards or have recently completed a post-secondary degree and in several cases the stated preference is for applicants with prior job experience in journalism and other fields. Several of the positions also specify that overtime, travel, and weekend or evening work will be required.

Employment lawyer Andrew Langille, who has worked extensively on internships and precarious work, said the roles are clearly a violation of the province’s Employment Standards Act.

Unpaid internships are only permissible in Ontario when they are in exchange for academic credit or if they meet a stringent six-part test, which states they must not replace a paid job, must be of primary benefit to the intern, and must be of “little, if any, benefit” to the employer, according to the Ministry of Labour.

“There’s no wriggle room,” Langille said.

The Star has previously reported on the use of unpaid internship programs at major corporations such as Bell, as well as violations uncovered by the Ministry of Labour. The ministry’s 2014 inspection blitz found 13 of 31 employers with internship programs were breaking the law, and were ordered to pay back almost $50,000 in unpaid wages and entitlements to interns.

Langille said unpaid work in the professional and semi-professional sports sector is a “huge problem,” which he has previously raised with the Ministry of Labour.

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“It would strike me that the Ministry of Labour needs to be doing proactive enforcement when it comes to the CFL and OHL,” he told the Star

“It’s a prestige industry,” he said. “There’s a lot of people that want to get into professional sports who are willing to work for free.”