The US Soccer Federation has announced it has offered the players’ unions for the US women’s national team and the US men’s national team identical financial proposals, with the aim of aligning both sides under a ‘single collective bargaining agreement (CBA) structure’.
The contracts guarantee the players will remain among the highest paid national team players on the planet, while reducing the pay gap between the US men’s and women’s national teams.
Att1...
This announcement comes after USSF president Cindy Parlow Cone penned an open letter explaining an equal pay solution that would see FIFA World Cup prize money equally distributed between both teams, should the men agree.
“This proposal will ensure that USWNT and USMNT players remain among the highest paid senior national team players in the world, while providing a revenue sharing structure that would allow all parties to begin anew and share collectively in the opportunity that combined investment in the future of U.S. Soccer will deliver over the course of a new CBA,” the statement read.
The USSF continued by stating it will not agree to the proposed CBA if either union doesn’t ‘take the important step of equalizing FIFA World Cup prize money’.
FIFA proposed $440m in prize money to teams that take part in the men’s 2022 World Cup – up from $400m in 2018 – in comparison to the $60m being offered to the Women’s team, up from $38m in 2019. That substantial difference in compensation forms one component of the USWNT’s equal pay claims.
While no union has made a direct comment on the announcement made on Tuesday by the soccer federation, the USWNTPA executive director Becca Roux said: “It is simply false that in past negotiations the Federation offered the Women’s National Team the ‘exact same contract’,” in regards to the open letter.
“If the USSF was serious about equal pay, they would not engage in publicity stunts which fall short of addressing our issues,” Roux added. “We are interested in negotiating in good faith to get a fair deal for our players and will not let them use our fight for equality to create a divide between the women and men. We remain committed to working with all parties for a fair deal that lifts all players.”
