USMNT stands in solidarity with USWNT on equal pay, takes U.S. Soccer to task in statement
The U.S. men’s national team isn’t happy with how U.S. Soccer is treating the women’s team, and they’re not being quiet about it.
The USMNT players association released a statement on Tuesday in response to the factsheet U.S. Soccer released on Monday. The factsheet sought to prove that the women’s team had been paid more than the men’s team (possibly through some non-traditional accounting), but actually highlighted the unnecessary differences between the compensation structures for each team. And the USMNT wasn’t having it.
U.S. men's soccer team players association issues statement supporting U.S. women's "pursuit of fair compensation," and takes issue with US Soccer's accounting in its letter yesterday: https://t.co/4zd2cXMNw1 pic.twitter.com/yXeDqTJLQ6
— Rachel Bachman (@Bachscore) July 30, 2019
How much more can be said than that? The USMNT found every weakness in U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro’s letter and disputed it. They called out Cordeiro and U.S. Soccer for being solely profit-focused and not growing the sport. They took Cordeiro to task for claiming that the USWNT lost $27 million over 11 years, calling it “false accounting.” And they even dismantle Cordeiro’s solution, which was to grow women’s soccer by having fans watch games on TV and buy tickets to see them play in person.
The only solution Mr. Cordeiro proposes is for fans to buy more tickets and watch more games on television. He conceals the fact that the money will not go to USWNT players when sponsors pay the Federation to support the USWNT, fans buy tickets to USWNT games at ever-increasing ticket prices, and television companies pay more when more fans watch USWNT games. That is neither fair nor equitable.
While the men’s team isn’t suing U.S. Soccer like the women’s team, they’re also struggling with labor issues. The USMNT’s collective bargaining agreement expired in December 2018, and they’ve been playing without one ever since. In the statement, the USMNT say that U.S. Soccer hasn’t contacted them about their proposal that would pay them more fairly based on the revenue they generate, and would give both the men’s and women’s team equal pay.
More from Yahoo Sports: