US Soccer Hires Lobbyists to Argue Women’s National Team Isn’t Underpaid

The U.S. Soccer Federation has hired two lobbying firms to shut down the claim the women’s national team isn’t underpaid according to Politico.com. The women’s team just won their fourth world cup, but they have been battling the USSF, filing a lawsuit in March which claims that “a player on the women’s team could have earned in a year as little as 38 percent of what a men’s team player made.”

FBB Federal Relations and Van Ness Feldman are the two lobbying firms hired by the USSF to help prove the women’s team’s claim is inaccurate.

“Due to the large number of requests we’ve received from policymakers since the Women’s World Cup, we are taking the proper steps to make sure that those leaders have accurate information and factual numbers that will inform them about the unmatched support and investment the U.S. Soccer Federation has provided as a leader in women’s football across the world,” Neil Buethe, a U.S. Soccer spokesman, said in a email to Politico.

Last month, U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro released a letter, which stated the women were paid more than the men from 2010-2018. He said the USSF paid the women $34.1 million in salary and game bonuses during the eight-year span while the men were paid $26.4 million.

Molly Levinson, the U.S. women’s team spokesperson is not buying it, per a statement shared: “This is a sad attempt by USSF to quell the overwhelming tide of support the USWNT has received from everyone from fans to sponsors to the United States Congress. The USSF fact sheet is not a “clarification. It is a ruse.”

Megan Rapinoe, the women’s co-captain, touched on the lawsuit when she recently talked to the New York Times.

“The lawsuit covers a lot,” Rapinoe said. “In a broad sense, it’s about equal investment and equal care of both the men’s and women’s sides. Whether it’s youth team programs, marketing, the branding of the team, how they sell tickets, what they spend advertising money on, what they pay each side, what they spend on support staff, what they spend on coaching, what’s the travel budget — it’s all of that. The compensation is sort of the last big part.”

The women’s soccer team has far more success than the men’s team. But with the USSF hiring lobbyist to argue that the women are being paid fairly, there’s no telling when this ordeal will end.