In the United States, female soccer players will soon be paid as much as their male counterparts – Liberation

The US Soccer Federation pledged to pay the women’s national team at the same level as the men’s team in an agreement with a group of players, including star Megan Rapinoe, who had sued. “I don’t just see this as a victory for our team or women’s sport, but for women in general”welcomed striker Alex Morgan.

“US Soccer is committed to paying equal pay from now on for the women’s and men’s national teams in all friendlies and tournaments, including the World Cup,” details the terms of the agreement between the two parts.

After the victory of the Bleues against the Netherlands in the Tournoi de France, the captain of the French women’s football team Wendie Renard judged that the United States had “far ahead” on the question of equal pay in football, obtained by American players after an agreement announced on Tuesday, a subject which “will come” in Europe.

Twenty-eight players from the United States women’s national team, world champion in France in 2019, had filed a class action lawsuit against the discriminatory policy of the American Football Federation. “When we win, everyone wins”applauded American football star Megan Rapinoe on Twitter, following the announcement of the agreement.

And now, the bonuses?

The agreement should put an end to the lawsuits initiated by this group of players and concerns a total of 24 million dollars, of which 22 million distributed according to a mode proposed by the players of the women’s national team.

The application of the terms of the agreement will depend on the ratification of a collective agreement between the players of the national team and the federation. Once this collective agreement is ratified and the agreement approved by a court, the lawsuits will be extinguished.

US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said in September she hoped “harmonize” the bonuses linked to the World Cup for the American men’s and women’s teams, in order to settle the dispute between the body and the players of the national team. The question of these bonuses was an important part of the lawsuit brought by the American women’s team in 2019, and notably brought by Megan Rapinoe, accusing the federation of “stubbornly refuse” to pay its players fairly.

FIFA, for example, granted a bonus of more than 32 million euros to France during its planetary success in 2018 among men, while only 3.4 million euros were paid to the Americans during their world title. of 2019. And the American players, eliminated in the round of 16 in 2014, had received 4.5 million euros while their female counterparts had only received 1.45 million for winning their competition.

With four World Cup victories and as many gold medals at the Olympic Games, the United States women’s national soccer team is the most successful in the history of women’s sport.