U.S. Soccer Federation, Women’s National Team Agree to Mediation Pay After World Cup

The U.S. Women’s National Team has struck a tentative agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation to seek mediation pay after the conclusion of the World Cup, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The suit will endeavor to address allegations of pay inequalities which were brought forth in a lawsuit filed in March.

28 members of the U.S Women’s National Team (USWNT) are party to the suit.

“In the midst of the World Cup, following news regarding significant revenue generated by the women players, USSF decided it is time to sit down with the players’ lawyers,” USWNT spokeswoman Molly Levinson said according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We hope their pledge to submit a proposal to solve the ongoing gender disparities is genuine. It would be truly remarkable for these games to mark the beginning of pay equity. The world is watching.”

Pay distribution for the World Cup is determined by the amount of money each World Cup competition makes. While the USWNT is head and shoulders above the men’s squad in terms of accomplishment and success, the men’s World Cup brings in far more money than the women’s WC.

According to Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston:

Last year, for instance, the winners of the Men’s World Cup were awarded a whopping $38 million to split up between them. Meanwhile, the winner of the 2019 Women’s World Cup will only get $4 million to split up, the Washington Examiner reported.

But a look at the impact of the two tournaments is telling for why that disparity might exist. The number of viewers of the two tournaments is a key figure to show why the men make more money. In 2018, the Men’s World Cup garnered 3.6 billion total viewers across the world. That viewership brought $6 billion in profits to FIFA, the international soccer league. On the other hand, the last Women’s World Cup in 2015 only saw 764 million viewers. That is a huge disparity.

U.S. Soccer acknowledged the tentative agreement with the USWNT, telling the WSJ that “[w]e look forward to everyone returning their focus to the efforts on the field as we aim to win another title.”

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn