Arkansas Online

Sweet, overdue victory

America didn’t invent soccer, but this nation has taken global leadership in making the world’s game truly equitable.

A May 18 collective bargaining deal solidified an arrangement a long time coming: equal pay for the men’s and women’s national soccer teams.

It still took protracted negotiations and a lawsuit, settled in February, for America to become the first nation to equalize pay for its international soccer representatives. The movement needs to go global. Women’s World Cup teams competed in 2019 for shares of $30 million—less than 8 percent of the $400 million that constituted the pot in the 2018 men’s tournament.

The U.S. women won the 2019 Women’s World Cup. For that, players took home $110,000 bonuses, about $300,000 less than members of the men’s team would have made had they won a men’s World Cup title in 2018. The new landmark agreement will pool FIFA’s unequal payouts so each player on a U.S. World Cup team, men’s or women’s, gets an equal share of the collective prize money.

Extra bonuses for wins have also been equalized between teams, ending the upside-down reality where the women’s side was given short shrift despite winning more. About time.

Another well-considered element of the bargain between U.S. Soccer and the respective national teams: the men’s team will have federation-provided child care, as the women’s team has for 25 years.

In 2026, stadiums across the U.S. will host men’s World Cup games, which have not been played on American soil since 1994. The host role will put a powerful spotlight on America’s advance in soccer gender equity; co-hosts Canada and Mexico—and the rest of the soccer, football and fútbol world—should follow suit.

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2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282226604341549

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