US Football and Players Guarantee Equal Pay in New Contracts


For the first time, players representing the United States men’s and women’s national teams will receive the same pay and prize money, including World Cups, under landmark deals with the U.S. Soccer Federation that will end years of litigation and fierce public disputes over what’s what. . It means “equal pay”.

The revised pay structures are part of the collective bargaining agreements with each team, announced Wednesday, three months after a group of top female team players. settled the gender discrimination case against USA Football and six months before the men’s team was played scheduled to appear At the World Cup in Qatar.

The agreements include guaranteeing male and female players the same paychecks for taking part in international matches, as well as a provision believed to be the first of its kind where teams will pool unequal payments they receive from FIFA, world football’s governing body. body to participate in the World Cup. Starting with the 2022 men’s tournament and the 2023 Women’s World Cup, this money will be split equally between members of both teams.

“No other country has done this,” said US Football President Cindy Parlow Cone of the deal to equalize World Cup payouts. “I think everyone should be really proud of what we’ve accomplished here. It’s really, really historic.”

Splitting the prize money is a notable concession by American men, who have previously received the bulk of the multimillion-dollar payouts that US Football receives from FIFA every time the team plays in the World Cup. The deal to pool money with women also removed what players and federation officials had long agreed upon, the biggest obstacle to resolving the equal pay debate. That’s a potentially huge bribe for the women’s team, whose World Cup prize pool is a tiny fraction of what’s paid out to the men’s teams every four years.

According to the new deals, which will run through 2028 and cover the next four World Cups, dozens of top male and female players were told in internal presentations reviewed by The New York Times that they can expect to receive an average annual payout of $450,000 from the United States. Football – and more than double in the potentially successful World Cup years.

“I’m so proud that there will be girls who will grow up to see what we’ve accomplished and appreciate it instead of fighting to see it,” said Midge Purce, a member of the group. collective bargaining committee for the women’s players association.

“But my father always told me, ‘You don’t get rewarded for doing what you have to do,'” she added. “And paying men and women equally is what you should do.”

The compensation gap for men and women has been one of the most controversial issues in football in recent years, especially after American women won consecutive World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019 and men failed to qualify for the 2018 tournament. Over the years, the women’s team, which includes some of the world’s best-known athletes, has escalated and strengthened its fight in court cases, news media interviews, and media coverage. on the biggest stages of sports.

Conflict has always been a complex issue. different contractsunequal prize money and other financial quirks that blur the pay gaps between men’s and women’s teams and complicate the ability of national governing bodies like USA Football to sort out the differences.

Yet the federation ultimately committed to a fairer system. To achieve this, US Soccer will distribute millions of extra dollars to its top players through a complex account of increased match bonuses, pooled prize money, and new revenue-sharing deals that will give each team a slice of tens of millions of dollars commercially. US Soccer’s annual revenue from sponsors, publishers and other partners.

Peace of work will be expensive: US Soccer has committed single-game payouts of $18,000 per player for games won and $24,000 per game for wins in select major tournaments – reinforcing the status of US men and women as the two highest-paid national teams in the world. And the federation will hand over 90 percent of the money it receives from FIFA to compete in the World Cup to the male and female players on these teams; Based on past performances and union estimates, it could result in a joint prize pool of more than $20 million as soon as next year.

But despite its cost, the new equal pay policy is of incalculable value to all concerned, as it will end a six-year war that has tarnished the federation’s reputation; Threatened US Football’s relationships key sponsors; and paid millions of dollars in legal fees on all sides of the fight.

As the parties struggled in courtrooms and negotiation sessions, the disagreement sometimes led to heated debates on: privacy, workplace equality and basic justiceand drew backing (and second guessing) from a different chorus. presidential candidates, star athletes and Hollywood celebritiesnot all supportive women’s equal pay campaign

Resolving the fight amicably rather than on the court can make it easier for the federation to attract new sponsors and re-establish ties with its most prominent players. By offering teams a share of their commercial revenue, US Soccer essentially encouraged its biggest stars to act as partners in finding new ways to increase these revenue streams.

When asked about the impact of the new contracts on US Soccer’s broader mission, Cone said, “It cannot be denied that the money we have to pay our national teams is money that is not reinvested in the game.” “And people can take that perspective. But my perspective is that our job is to try to understand how all three groups can work together to grow the pie, so everyone benefits.”

Cone and representatives of both teams said the deals offer a model for those looking to restructure a multi-billion dollar sports industry where generational benefits are still disproportionately flowing into men’s sports and male athletes.

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

Still, while resolving the equal pay struggle in the US would have enormous symbolic and financial value, it’s unclear whether new deals will be more enthusiastic than replicable globally.

Ever since American women began suppressing the fight for equal pay in 2016, football federations have Norway with Australia with Holland They took action to pay their national teams more evenly. But all these deals sought to equalize matchday pay rates, which were far lower than the numbers US Soccer pays its top teams. And they all survived the biggest pay gap in football: the huge gap in World Cup bonuses paid by FIFA to men and women. For example, at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, 24 teams competed for the $30 million prize pool; The 32 men’s teams that will compete in Qatar in November will split the 450 million dollars.

A deal negotiated in 2020 after a federal judge became the only way to equal pay denied basic allegations A group of top female players who filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the federation. Cone, a former women’s national team player who was recently promoted to the role of volunteer president of USA Football, greeted this decision with an olive branch at the time and pushed for renewed deal negotiations. But last fall, the mention of USA Football increased the pressure on male players to help fill the gap. won’t accept new contracts with either team This did not equalize the World Cup prize money.

Walker Zimmerman, defender on the men’s team and leader of the players’ union, said he and his teammates realized by then that “there was no other way to do it”. He admitted that convincing his teammates to ratify the deals that were finally reached was “not always the smoothest”.

“Trying to articulate what you believe should happen, what’s possible, what’s right — these conversations are difficult,” Zimmerman said. But in the end, there’s a group of players on both the men’s and women’s teams that come together and get the job done.”

Despite Wednesday’s spirit of easing, payouts to US men and women will still not be entirely equal: Injuries, coaching decisions, and even the number of games each team plays will continue to affect what individual players can win. But for the first time, both teams and the federation will be able to agree that the pay rate will be at least equal.

“We still have two separate contracts, but economically everything is exactly the same,” Cone said.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *