CLEVELAND − US football player, Alex Morgan, cautiously welcomed the US Soccer Federation's offer of identical contract proposals for both the men's and women's teams, but said the proposal required scrutiny before it could be accepted.
Before Alex spoke on it yesterday, the United States Women's National Team Players Association (USWNTPA) labelled the move as nothing more than a publicity stunt.
The US Soccer Federation (USSF) announced its offer on Tuesday as part of an effort to align the women's and men's national teams under one collective bargaining agreement.
"USSF's PR stunts and bargaining through the media will not bring us any closer to a fair agreement," the USWNTPA said on Twitter.
The US Women’s National Team (USWNT) sued US football's governing body in 2019 over allegations of gender discrimination in compensation and nearly every other aspect of their playing conditions.
Months later they won a fourth World Cup as fans chanted "equal pay" during the final.
The lawsuit, which sought US$66 mil (RM274.4 mil) in damages under the Equal Pay Act, was dismissed but the USWNT have since appealed.
The USWNT's current labour agreement expires at the end of 2021 while the men's team have been operating under the terms of a deal that expired in 2018.
Speaking at a news conference yesterday in Cleveland, Ohio, ahead of a match between the United States and Paraguay, Alex said negotiations were ongoing.
"Any commitment to equal pay, publicly, is good, however, we need to look line by line at what they're actually providing because if you know you have equal, but if it's not even what we got before or to the value that we are, then we still consider that to be not good enough," she said.
"We will continue to work with US Soccer moving forward, looking towards equal and fair payment and treatment."
In announcing its offer on Tuesday, US Soccer also said it would not agree to a labour agreement that does not take the step of equalising World Cup prize money and invited the teams and their unions to join the federation to help find a solution.
FIFA offered prize money of US$30 mil (RM124.7 mil) to the teams in the 2019 Women's World Cup, while the men took home US$400 million (RM1.66 bil) in 2018. – Reuters, September 16, 2021
