US Federation closes deal and men’s and women’s teams will have equal pay

For the first time, athletes defending the United States men’s and women’s soccer teams will receive equal pay and prizes, including at World Cups, pursuant to a historic agreement signed with US Soccer. that puts an end to years of litigation and bitter public wrangling over what constitutes “equal pay”.

The revised pay structures are part of collective bargaining agreements with the two teams announced Wednesday, three months after a group of top American female soccer players agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit against US Soccer. and six months before the men’s team takes to the field for its participation in the World Cup in Qatar.

In addition to guaranteeing equal payments to men and women who participate in international matches, the agreements include a clause, which is known to be unprecedented, under which teams will combine the unequal payments they receive from FIFA, the organization that runs world football, for participation in World Cups.

From the 2022 Men’s World Cup and the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the money will be divided equally between the members of the two teams.

“No other country has done that,” said Cindy Parlow Cone, the president of US Soccer, of the deal to match payments received for World Cups. “I think everyone should be very proud of what we’ve accomplished with this deal. It’s really, truly historic.”

The division of the prize money is a notable concession on the part of the men’s team, which previously took the lion’s share of the multi-million payouts US Soccer receives from FIFA when the team plays in a World Cup.

The agreement to split the money equally with the women’s team also removed what the players and the federation saw as the biggest obstacle to resolving the equal pay debate. This could be a huge boon for the women’s team, whose FIFA payouts for playing World Cups are a fraction of the men’s.

Under the new agreements, which expire in 2028 and cover the next four World Cups, dozens of America’s top footballers, men and women, have been told, in internal presentations to which The New York Times has seen, that they can expect annual payments. averages of $450,000 from US Soccer —​​and potentially more than double that amount in successful World Cup years.

“I’m very proud that there will be girls who will be able to grow up and see what we’ve accomplished, and see their value recognized, rather than having to fight for it,” said Midge Purce, a member of the women’s association’s collective bargaining committee.

“But my father always told me that no one gets a reward for doing their duty,” she added. “And paying men and women equally is a must.”

The pay gap between men and women has been one of the most contentious issues in football in recent years, especially after the US women’s team won two consecutive World Cups, in 2015 and 2019, and the men’s team failed to qualify for the finals. the 2018 World Cup. Over the years, the women’s team, which includes some of the most recognizable athletes on the planet, has amplified and extended its struggle through lawsuits, interviews and pronouncements on the sport’s biggest stages.

The dispute has always been a complex issue, with differences in contracts, the money paid by FIFA and other financial complications helping to cover up pay disparities between men and women and complicating the situation for national federations such as US Soccer in their efforts to resolve differences.

But the federation eventually committed to adopting a more equitable system. To achieve this, US Soccer will distribute millions of additional dollars to the country’s best players through a complicated calculation that involves higher payouts per game played, shared prize pools and new revenue-sharing agreements that will give each team its share of the dozens. of millions of dollars that the federation receives each year from sponsors, television networks and other partners.

Making peace with the athletes will be expensive. US Soccer has made a commitment to pay each athlete $18,000 per game, and the payout can be as high as $24,000 in the event of major tournament victories –​—cementing the status of the U.S. women’s and men’s teams as two of the highest paid football teams on the planet. And the federation will hand over up to 90% of the money it receives from FIFA for participating in the World Cups to members of the men’s and women’s teams that play in these tournaments. Based on past performance, this could result in a shared prize pool of over $20 million starting next year.

But whatever the cost, the new equal pay policy will be invaluable to all involved, and will put an end to six years of disputes that have tarnished US Soccer’s reputation, jeopardized its relationships with key sponsors and resulted in millions of dollars spent. of dollars with lawyers on both sides of the dispute.

As the two sides battled it out in court and in negotiating sessions, the dispute also produced occasionally caustic barbs about personal privacy, workplace equality and basic justice, and drew support (and hunches) from a disparate chorus of presidential candidates. , sports stars and Hollywood celebrities – not all of whom are champions of the women’s equal pay campaign.

Resolving the dispute amicably rather than in court can make it easier for the federation to attract new sponsors, and rebuild its links with its most important players. And by offering teams a slice of its commercial revenue, US Soccer is essentially providing an incentive for its biggest stars to act as its partners in finding new ways to increase those revenues.

“I can’t deny that the money we will have to pay our national teams is money we will stop investing in sport,” said Cone, when asked about the effects of the new contracts on the federation’s broader mission. “And people can look at it from that perspective. But the way I see it, our job is to try to figure out how these three groups can work together to grow the pie and benefit everyone.”

Cone and representatives from both teams said the agreements offered a model for those looking to restructure the multibillion-dollar sports industry where generational advantages mean that money, prominence and opportunity continue to flow disproportionately towards sports and male sportsmen.

“These agreements changed the game forever in the United States,” Cone said. “And they have the potential to change the game around the world.”

But while resolving the payments dispute has immense symbolic and financial value in the United States, it is unclear whether the new agreements represent a model that could be followed elsewhere on the planet.

Since women on the US national football team began pushing for equal pay in 2016, football federations such as those in Norway, Australia and the Netherlands have moved to make their national teams pay more evenly. But all of these agreements sought to match the amounts paid per game, in all cases much lower than what US Soccer pays its top teams. And all of them left out the main disparity in football’s remuneration: the huge difference in the amounts paid to men’s and women’s teams by FIFA in their respective World Cups.

The 24 teams that participated in the 2019 World Cup in France, for example, shared a prize pool of US$ 30 million; the 32 men’s teams that will compete in the World Cup in Qatar, in November, will share US$ 450 million.

A negotiated settlement has become the only path to equal pay in 2020 after a US federal court dismissed top complaints from a group of top women’s players who were suing the federation for gender discrimination. Cone, who was once a member of the women’s national team and recently became US Soccer’s volunteer president, received the court ruling with rapprochement efforts, at the time, seeking renewed negotiations for an agreement. But she increased pressure on men’s players to help reduce the disparity late last year when she said US Soccer would not accept new contracts with any of the teams that did not equal the prizes received from FIFA for the World Cup. of the world.

Walker Zimmerman, a quarterback for the US men’s national team and one of the leaders of the athletes’ union, said he and his teammates had by then come to the conclusion that “there’s no other way to do it.” Persuading his teammates to ratify the agreements “has not always gone smoothly,” he admitted.

“Trying to express what you believe should happen, what’s possible and what’s right … these conversations are difficult,” Zimmerman said. “But in the end we had a group of players, both in the men’s and women’s teams, who came together and resolved the matter.”

Despite Wednesday’s spirit of concord, the men’s and women’s pay will still not be entirely equal: injuries, coaching decisions and even the number of matches played by each team will continue to affect the amount each player receives. But for the first time, both the national teams and the federation will be able to agree that at least the pay scale will be the same.

“We continue to have two separate contracts,” Cone said, “but in economic terms, things are exactly the same.”

For the best-known players on the U.S. soccer team, the deal could represent an immediate reward by unlocking access to $24 million set aside under the deal they reached with US Soccer in February, an amount largely related to deferred payments. . (The agreement was negotiated for them to withdraw a discrimination lawsuit against the federation.) US Soccer made the payment of the amount conditional on the signing of new collective bargaining agreements, which formalized equal pay between the two teams.

With the new agreements approved, US Soccer can now seek approval from the judge in charge of the original process to begin issuing checks.