President Trump briefly touched on the debate about the alleged gender pay gap between men and women in professional soccer, during a press spray outside Air Force One on Sunday.
“I would like to see that,” Trump said, addressing an inaudible question that was about the pay gap discussion between men’s and women’s professional soccer. “You also have to look at numbers.”
“Because when you look at World Cup soccer, that’s one thing,” Trump continued. “And you also have to look at soccer, professional soccer. You have to see who’s taking in what. So I don’t know what those numbers are. I would like to see that. But again, you have to look at the great stars of the men’s soccer, the great stars of the women’s, and you have to see year-round how are they all drawing. What is the attendance outside of World Cup?”
Members of the stadium audience at Sunday’s World Cup final chanted “equal pay,” in reference to the controversy.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that in the three years since its last World Cup win, U.S. women’s soccer generated more revenue than U.S. men’s soccer. The U.S. Women’s team sued the federation in March, alleging gender discrimination and lower pay than their male counterparts.
The federation maintained that the men’s and women’s divisions are separate entities, and that any alleged pay gap is “based on differences in the aggregate revenue generated by the different teams and/or any other factor other than sex,” according to U.S. Soccer’s legal statement from May 6.
