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What I've Been Reading This Week: USWNT Lawsuit Edition


Yesterday, it was announced that the United States Women's National Team ("USWNT") filed a wage discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation.  The players alleged in the lawsuit that they are paid almost four times less than the United States Men's National Team, despite generating almost $20 million more in revenue last year.  This is a huge story and one that continues to grow.  I will plan on covering it more next week, but in the meantime, I wanted to point readers to a few articles on the topic.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.


President of United States Soccer Federation Responds to Lawsuit

Joe Prince-Wright has a good article in regard to a conference call yesterday in which Sunil Gulati, President of the United States Soccer Federation ("USSF"), stated that United States soccer holds the USWNT in high regard and would be willing to compensate them fairly when it comes time to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement.  With that being said, Gulati pointed out that many factors go into determining compensation for male and female soccer players...thus why female players earned less than their male counterparts.  USSF's outside counsel, Russell Sauer, has noted that he was taken by surprise to find out the the lawsuit alleged that the USSF would not give the women's team equal pay.  Note, neither of these statements are official answers to the lawsuit...but it gives you an idea that at least on the surface, the USSF is willing to work with the women's team to resolve the issue.  Time will tell whether that is actually the case.
 

Bernie Sanders & Hillary Clinton Announce Support for USWNT Lawsuit

The two remaining Democratic candidates for President tweeted their support for the USWNT lawsuit yesterday.  This is not much of a surprise, given that these two candidates have continually advocated for equal pay over the course of the campaign.  Perhaps it is more surprising that none of the three remaining Republican candidates for President have come out in support (or opposition) to this lawsuit.  Given the fact that at least one Republican candidate, Donald Trump, is apparently having issues winning over female voters, his support of this lawsuit could go a long way to help him mend fences with this voting bloc.



SI has an interesting note on former United State's men's captain Landon Donovan who voiced his support for the USWNT.  In a tweet yesterday afternoon, Donovan stated that the "USWNT absolutely deserve to be treated fairly in all ways."  He followed that up with a tweet that stated "Both USMNT and USWNT should be paid commensurate w/the revenues they produce, not based upon what the other makes."  As noted in the lawsuit, the USWNT claim they brought in $20 million more in revenue last year than the USMNT...assuming the numbers check out, Donovan is in support of the women's team receiving additional compensation.  Given his high profile and stature as a former player, his support lends a great deal of credibility to the USWNT's lawsuit.


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