The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), Women’s National Team Players Association (USWNTPA), and National Soccer Team Players Association (USNSTPA) have officially reached an unprecedented agreement to equalize pay between the USSF’s male and female athletes.
The USSF announced the newly reached collective bargaining agreement (CBA) on Wednesday.
The CBA runs through December 2028 and ends an era of sometimes contentious negotiations. In February, the USSF agreed to pay $24 million to settle a lawsuit brought by women’s team players over alleged discrimination regarding unequal pay.
Negotiations turned contentious when the USSF made a court filing that went public. It argued players on the women’s national team did “not perform equal work requiring equal skill [and] effort” because “the overall soccer-playing ability required to compete at the senior men’s national team level is materially influenced by the level of certain physical attributes such as speed and strength.”
The filing led to an intense backlash, forcing then-USSF president Carlos Cordeiro to resign. He was replaced by former USWNT player Cindy Parlow Cone.
Perhaps the most significant change the new CBA brings is the equal distribution of World Cup bonuses and prize money between men and women players.
The U.S. women have been successful in the international tournament, winning back-to-back World Cup titles. The U.S. men’s team has not reached the semifinals of the World Cup since 1930. Still, differences in FIFA prize money allocation meant they took home far less than the men’s winners due to the difference in money paid out by FIFA.
Previously the USSF based World Cup bonuses on payments from FIFA, which gave federations $400 million for the 2018 men’s tournament, including $38 million to champion France, and $30 million for the 2019 women’s tournament, including $4 million to the champion United States.
FIFA is increasing its payments to $440 million for the 2022 men’s World Cup. Its president, Gianni Infantino, has proposed that FIFA double the women’s prize money to $60 million for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
The unions agreed to pool together FIFA’s payments for the men’s World Cup later this year and the women’s World Cup next year, as well as the 2026 and 2027 tournaments.
Globally, men’s soccer is more popular. More than 3.5 billion watched the 2018 men’s World Cup on TV, and 2.9 million tickets were sold, compared to the approximately 1 billion that watched the women’s version in 2019 and the 1.1 million tickets purchased.
However, it is not known exactly how much the men’s and women’s World Cups each generate in revenue, as FIFA does not release separate reports for each tournament. Instead, it releases a single report noting the combined revenue generated.
The USSF said it is the first soccer federation to pool FIFA prize money for its men and women players.
The new CBA also improves other areas, such as parental leave, short-term disability, mental health impairment, travel, equal quality of playing venues and field surfaces, and extending child care to male athletes.