U.S. Soccer asserted that players on the men’s national team required more skill than the players on the four-time world champion women’s national team.
In a deposition for the equal pay lawsuit, U.S. Soccer reported that players on the men’s national team needed a higher level of skill than female players. The organization argued, “Even assuming there are WNT players who could perform the job of MNT player (contrary to Plaintiffs’ own testimony), that is not the point. The point is that the job of MNT player (competing against senior men’s national teams) requires a higher level of skill based on speed and strength than does the job of WNT player (competing against senior women’s national teams).”
The organization also argued that male players carry more responsibility than female players because of the potential to bring in more viewers. U.S. Soccer argued that men’s players have the responsibility for competing in multiple soccer tournaments with the potential for generating a total of more than $40 million in prize money for U.S. Soccer every four years.
“WNT players compete in only one soccer tournament every four years that has the potential to generate any prize money at all, and most recently that amounted to one-tenth of the amount the MNT players could generate,” the organization added.
U.S. Soccer also added that there are significantly more television viewers for men’s games than female games. The organization explained, “As for the World Cup, when the MNT last qualified, the ratings for its four World Cup matches were watched by more viewers than all the WNT matches in 2019 combined, Women’s World Cup included.”
While U.S. men’s team does yield more viewers, they have to make the tournament to get any of those views. The men’s team did not qualify in 2018. The highest the men’s team has ever placed in the FIFA World Cup was third place in 1930. The women have won four of the last eight FIFA World Cups.
Molly Levinson, a spokeswoman for the women’s team, ripped U.S. Soccer for the argument that the men’s players have more skill. She told the Hill, “This ridiculous ‘argument’ belongs in the Paleolithic Era. It sounds as if it has been made by a caveman.”
“Literally everyone in the world understands that an argument that male players ‘have more responsibility’ is just plain simple sexism and illustrates the very gender discrimination that caused us to file this lawsuit to begin with. So looking forward to trial on May 5,” Levinson added.
As part of the data release from the lawsuit’s discovery, salary data from U.S. Soccer suggested that female players were paid more than men despite the lawsuit against the league from female players demanding equal pay. The men’s and women’s teams have different payment structures, with the men’s team relying on performance and the women’s team starting with a base salary.
