Equal-pay
row costs
Cordeiro
There was something different about the
USA women’s team when they ran out
before the SheBelieves Cup game with
Japan in Texas. Their warm-up shirts
were inside out. This rendered the badge
of governing body United States Soccer
Federation (USSF) invisible but, because
of the stitching, still revealed the badge
outline and the four stars above it – one
for each Women’s World Cup success.
The whole squad, not just the starting
line-up, then posed for a pre-match
photo in the inside-out shirts, a photo
subsequently tweeted out by some of
the players. As protests go it was mightily
effective. The following day the president
of USSF, Carlos Cordeiro, resigned.
The kit change was a squad response
to newly released filings from their
gender discrimination case against USSF
which revealed the federation’s strategy
was to argue the women were being paid
less than the men’s team because they
had “less skill, ability and responsibility”.
This was a lawyer’s argument. To win
a suit under the Equal Pay Act the US
women’s team have to prove their work
is sufficiently equal to the men’s. USSF’s
legal strategy was to deny that claim.
This may have made sense legally, but
in the wider court of public opinion it was
incendiary. The players were furious and
it soon became clear USSF’s tactic was
wildly out of step with the national mood.
BreakingT, a sports clothing company,
produced a T-shirt licensed by the USWNT
Players Association called “Four Stars
Only” based on the inside-out shirt and
it quickly became their fastest-selling
item, shifting more than 5,000 copies
in the first 24 hours.
The American Outlaws, the long-
established 30,000-strong group
of hardcore supporters of both male
and female US teams, issued a statement
describing USSF’s argument that
the women’s soccer side was inferior
to the men’s as “objectionable and
disappointing”. Also weighing in on
the USWNT’s side, perhaps more
worrying for USSF, were a series of
major sponsors.
MLS commissioner and USSF board
member Don Garber, the Athletes’
Council – a body of past and present
US internationals which had backed
Cordeiro’s 2018 election – and Cordeiro’s
vice-president Cindy Parlow Cone also
criticised the strategy and language.
Cordeiro, who had seemed the living
embodiment of the American dream
having arrived in the US as a 15-year-
old immigrant son of a widowed mother
then becoming a Harvard graduate and
Goldman Sachs executive, fell on his
sword. How much he was individually
responsible for the strategy is unclear- he said he had not “fully reviewed
the filing” – but he had exacerbated
an already bitter dispute when, on
International Women’s Day, he released a
letter arguing the federation had already
offered an equal-pay deal. The players
dismissed this as riddled with falsehoods.
Trust between them had broken down.
Parlow Cone, a member of the 1999
World Cup-winning team, took over. She
is the first woman to hold the influential
but unpaid position and will remain in the
role until February 2021. She is joined at
the helm by a new CEO, Will Wilson, who
has been a players’ agent working in NFL
but has past experience with USSF’s
marketing partner.
Their in-box is full. Pressing concerns
include the need to ensure the men’s
team qualify for Qatar 2022 after
missing out on the 2018 World Cup,
laying the groundwork for the north
American joint-hosting of the 2026
men’s World Cup, and overseeing a
coaching structure that has needed
rebuilding, in part due to an edict that
all age-group coaches move to Chicago.
But a priority, they stressed in their
first joint appearance, is settling the legal
case with the USWNT and restoring
trust. “I don’t think a trial is good for
either party or for soccer,” said Parlow
Cone. “I’m hopeful that we can find a
resolution before this goes to trial.” Wilson
added: “I would echo that. It’s a priority,
and finding a solution would be the best
way to go forward.”
That will involve USSF making a
financial settlement. The only question
is how much. The players are seeking
$67million in back pay and damages
plus punitive damages, and a
commitment to equal pay going forward.
The figures have been arrived at by
assessing what the women would have
earned in recent years were they paid
the same as the men.
Parlow Cone has officially withdrawn
the controversial claim that the men’s
game is superior, calling it “offensive”. But
USSF still argues, more reasonably, the
pay disparity is largely because rewards
at the men’s World Cup are far greater
than the women’s and that is down toDispute tears US federation apart
Glenn MooreWomen’s Football
High profile...Megan
Rapinoe celebrates a
goal against Japan in
the SheBelieves CupInside out...(from
left) Kelley O’Hara,
Sam Mewis and
Adrianna Franch
make their point“I don’t think a trial
is good for either
party or for soccer”
Cindy Parlow Cone