Five female players accuse U.S. Soccer Federation of wage discrimination

Their return home was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in the streets of New York City. The U.S. women’s national soccer team celebrated its 2015 World Cup championship with hundreds of thousands of fans lining the sidewalks.

FC Kansas City captain Becky Sauerbrunn, a member of the World Cup team, called it the pinnacle of her career. Nine months later, she is bracing for a long battle with the the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Five players from the World Cup-winning team, including Sauerbrunn, have accused the U.S. Soccer Federation of wage discrimination in an action filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo say in the EEOC filing that they were paid nearly four times less than their male counterparts on the U.S. men’s national team — despite the fact that the federation projects the women’s team will generate more revenue than the men’s squad in fiscal years 2016 and 2017.

Sauerbrunn told The Star on Thursday that the team is prepared to take stronger action, too, including a potential strike.

“It’s definitely something that we could explore if it comes to a resolution not being met,” Sauerbrunn said in a phone interview.

“We’re very much dedicated to the success of this team, but we are willing to do what we have to do in order to win what we feel is the right fight. We’re keeping everything open as a possibility.”

U.S. Soccer said in a statement Thursday that it could not comment on the specifics of the complaint.

The EEOC filing was announced Thursday in a statement from the law firm representing the players. It came on the heels of a stalemate in collective-bargaining agreement negotiations between the players and U.S. Soccer.

“We’ve been in CBA negotiations with the federation for the last couple of months. And they made it crystal clear that they’ve assigned a certain amount of money for the women’s national team, and that pot of money did not match the compensation objectives that we were (looking) for,” Sauerbrunn said. “The negotiations reached a stalemate. So we’re kind of forced to make this complaint and filing it with the EEOC.”

The players on the women’s national team receive an annual compensation based on which “tier” they fall into, with the top players earning a base salary of $72,000 per year, plus potential bonuses, for a minimum of 20 exhibition matches. The women’s players receive a bonus of $1,350 for a friendly — but only if they win it — for a potential annual total of $99,000.

The men are paid on a per-match basis, receiving at least $5,000 per game — even in a loss — with additional money awarded based on opponent and result. So a men’s player would earn a minimum of $100,000 over 20 matches, but with the bonuses, that number could increase to as much as $263,320.

The women’s players earn $30,000 for making the World Cup roster. The men net $68,750 for the same feat, according to the filing.

When the U.S. women won the World Cup last summer in Canada, the players also split a $2 million prize. The men, on the other hand, split $9 million after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where the U.S. team was eliminated in round of 16.

The U.S. women’s World Cup championship match last summer was watched by 26.7 million Americans — the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history.

In its annual financial report, U.S. Soccer estimates it will generate $41.15 million in revenue from the women’s team in fiscal years 2016 and 2017, compared with $30.1 million from the men’s team over the two years, but this time period includes a World Cup for the women but not for the men.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said the men’s team generally generates almost twice as much revenue as the women’s team.

David Nathanson, head of business operations for Fox Sports, told the New York Daily News, “I can tell you that when we were bidding on the (TV) rights, we valued the women’s World Cup almost as high as the men’s World Cup.” The net revenue from the women’s World Cup was projected at $17 million but turned out to be $40 million, according to the Daily News report.

In the complaint, the five players are represented by attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who represented New England quarterback Tom Brady in Deflategate. Sauerbrunn said the complaint has the “full support” of the entire national team.

“The reality is that this team is more valuable to the USSF than the men’s team has been. That’s what the facts show,” Kessler said during a teleconference call with reporters on Thursday. “And they would be justified in asking for more than the men are receiving. But the first step that they are seeking is equal treatment. That should be an easy step for the USSF to take.”

The union representing the players is currently involved in anther legal dispute with U.S. Soccer over the terms of their collective-bargaining agreement. The federation filed a lawsuit this year seeking to clarify that its contract with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Players Association runs through Dec. 31. The union maintains that the memorandum of understanding, agreed to in March 2013, can be terminated at any time.

The U.S. women’s team is currently training in Orlando ahead of friendlies against Colombia on April 6 and April 10. The Olympic women’s soccer tournament takes place in August.

This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 8:09 AM with the headline "Five female players accuse U.S. Soccer Federation of wage discrimination."