1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Monday. “Soccer-US Women’s World Cup Power Play–Miss the Mark”

Posted by on May 4th, 2020  •  0 Comments  • 

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“Soccer Power Play–Misses Goal”

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US Soccer is a mess.

From the turmoil with the resignation of the US Soccer Federations’ President, for tasteless comments.

To the failure of Team USA to qualify for the next World Cup.

To the financial troubles youth soccer is going thru.

To the global disgrace that is FIFA, its corruption-leadership issues.

Not a pretty picture.

And now this, the US Women’s National Team’s ugly 66M lawsuit over the Gender-Equity Pay issues.  Women not being treated as fairly as men.

Or so we thought.

The women of Team USA have brought their program to enormous popularity with their successes in World Cup play….two trophies in global play in 2015-2019.

And like the success women’s college basketball had, driving us to the success that Title IX has brought women’s athletics, the outspoken personalities of Meaghan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd brought attention for the need for the US-Womens program to get equal treatment and pay to that given Tim Howard, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and more on the men’s side.

The public drive for equal pay, led to the massive 66M-lawsuit against the USSF…that has been brewing for over two years.

And now it is over.

A New York federal judge threw the lawsuit out of court, saying the US Women’s program never showed the inequity they say exists now.  Far from it.

Instead the judge released the documents showing the women rejected an offer from USSF to be paid along the same structure as the men, in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement.  They would have been paid the same game salaries, and bonus’ for wins in international play.

The women rejected it, even though the CBA offered them additional medical benefits, for childbirth, leave of absence and more.  They wanted higher game salaries in the ‘Pay for Play Plan’

The women said ‘no’, they wanted to be paid at a different salary than men, and used a 4-year payment schedule, they thought would show inequities.

It didn’t.

Instead it showed the 18-men, on Team USA,  earned 17,625-dollars per game plus bonuses for victories and additional money in sponsorship deals.  the men each earned on the average 212,639-per year.

The US women over the last four years, each earned 220,747 each, plus bonuses, plus their unique motherhood benefits, plus sponsorship money, and not counting additional pay for playing in the National Women’s Soccer League.

The women won 2-World Cups in that span, and made more money per year than the men.  The federal judge ruled the women made the ‘choice’ not to accept the pay structure offered to the men.

It looks as if Rapinoe and others were yelling ‘fire’ to get attention, when no fire existed.

They created angst within the USSF, burned thru a lot of lawyers fees, and triggered significant ill-will in the soccer community.  Maybe 10-years ago, the deal wasn’t fair.  Maybe 20-years ago it was a disgrace.  Right now it’s not.

Better days are likely coming.  With the purge of leadership atop complete, Cindy Cone has been elevated to the lead position as President.  As a new CBA gets negotiated, look for a deal that is fair and equal for all the stars of Mens-Womens soccer in our country.

The US Women’s Team tried to pull off a power play, due to their popularity.  They suffered a loss in credibility for how they handled all this.

US soccer has so many issues, they didn’t need this ugly in-fight.

US-Women…Missed a shot on goal for sure.

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