Today is a significant victory for women in sport. After a long struggle for equal pay, U.S. Soccer Federation has finally agreed that its U.S. Men’s National Team and U.S. Women’s National Team teams will be paid equally.
The deal promises to “set the global standard moving forward in international soccer,” per CNN. The agreement will make USSF the first international federation to share the FIFA World Cup prize cash. U.S. Soccer filed a gender discrimination suit against U.S. Soccer Women’s Soccer in March 2019. However, the parties did not reach an agreement until early-2022.
“This is a truly historic moment,” said U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone in a statement, per CNN. “These agreements have changed the game forever here in the United States and have the potential to change the game around the world. U.S. Soccer and the USWNT and USMNT players have reset their relationship with these new agreements and are leading us forward to an incredibly exciting new phase of mutual growth and collaboration as we continue our mission to become the preeminent sport in the United States.”
The agreement does not stop at equal pay but also aims to give the USWNT more visibility with “broadcast, partner, and sponsorship revenue with a 50/50 split of that share divided equally between USWNT and USMNT,” per CNN. The agreement also covers other areas such as child care, parental and short-term disability, mental illness impairment, travel, and equal field playing surfaces and venues.
“They said equal pay for men and women was not possible, but that did not stop us and we went ahead and achieved it,” said Walker Zimmerman, a member of the U.S. National Soccer Team Players Association leadership group, per CNN. “We hope this will awaken others to the need for this type of change, and will inspire FIFA and others around the world to move in the same direction.”
Source: Glamour