American footballers got the job done: finally equal pay

A new business contract last week ended a years-long battle between the NFL and the NFL. The footballers finally got what they wanted: equal pay.

Both men and women will now receive $8,000 (€7,600) per international, and a winning bonus of $10,000 (€9,500), as stipulated in the agreement between the men’s and women’s national team and American football.

according to New York times A woman can now earn around $450,000 a year, and about double that in a successful year at the World Cup.

Construction is nothing new in the world of football. In Norway, among others, women are paid the same as men, but in the Scandinavian country, prize money for major tournaments is still disproportionately distributed.

This is exactly what distinguishes the American deal: men and women collect all the money they receive from FIFA at the World Cup, and then divide the sum into two equal amounts. According to the NFL, this is a unique arrangement. “No country has done this yet,” said President Cindy Kohn.

Women are expected to improve dramatically in the near future. To clarify: For the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, FIFA is allocating more than 400 million euros in prize money to 32 participating countries. Whoever survived the group stage has already confirmed about 10 million. The women’s teams, in turn, divided an amount of nearly 30 million euros in the 2019 World Cup in France. Winner America maintained $4 million (€3.8 million) from success.

The final they won against the Netherlands meant America won the Women’s World Cup for the fourth time, while the men failed to qualify for the World Championships in Russia in 2018. In the United States, women’s football is many times more successful than the men, who were paid higher.

In 2016, five national team players — Carli Lloyd, Becky Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Hope Solo — filed a complaint with the Gender Discrimination Committee. “Men get more money for attending than we get for winning tournaments,” Solow said.

And according to the women, they also brought in more money for American football than the men. The Football Association dug its heels in the sand and came out with shapes that show the opposite.

It was the beginning of a bitter struggle. In 2019, it culminated in a lawsuit that the women eventually lost. Case followers watched how soccer players became victims of their own success: due to World Cup titles and their popularity (in 2019 15 million Americans watched the final), it was during the litigation period (2015 to 2019) that he got relatively a lot, while men had just given up Without a major tournament.

The women appealed, but earlier this year the case was suddenly settled for $24 million. American football promised that the next employment contract would include equal pay. Last Wednesday it happened.

“I am very proud,” said Rapinoe, who over the years has become the banner of the struggle for equal pay. In 2019, the audience cheered two words when she took to the stage at a parade for the world champion in New York.

Sauerbrunn, who is also among the original five who filed a complaint in 2016, thanked the women who fought with her: “There’s always work to be done, but let’s enjoy this for a while.”

So far, female international players have been paid by US Soccer over the course of an entire season. Players initially accepted a lower amount for better pay in the NWSL. International players were paid per match, and above all more. From now on, the latter construction also applies to women, and therefore they take a little risk. Anyone who was not summoned or injured would receive nothing from now on.

The US national team men also responded to the new agreement last week. “I am so proud to have achieved this,” Leipzig midfielder Tyler Adams said in a tweet on Twitter. “It took a lot of work, but we finally got it done.”

According to international Walker Zimmerman, who was involved in the negotiations on behalf of the players’ union, the deal has been tough. The defender revealed that sharing the prize money was preceded by “difficult conversations”. “But we soon saw that there would be no other option than an equal division.” American Football President Kuhn believes that men are to be commended. “It’s not easy to give up that money,” Ige spoke to the former American player. “They did that deserve applause.”