So much for equal pay.
The unions representing the U.S. Soccer’s men’s and women’s national teams joined forces two years ago on a landmark collective bargaining agreement that guarantees that players on both squads receive the same bonus and prize money for representing their country at World Cups and other competitions. However, a loophole in the deal means that the U.S. Soccer Federation will not compensate members of the U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team for participating in next month’s Summer Games in Paris, multiple sources confirmed to FOX Sports. American Soccer Now was the first to report the news.
The 18 players named to the U.S. women’s Olympic team on Wednesday will receive their full bonuses under their CBA: a $10,000 per-game appearance fee, plus an additional $12,000 for each win and $4,000 for each tie. The four-time Olympic champion USWNT would also earn a $36,000 per-player bonus for winning the gold medal, $24,000 for the silver or $8,000 for the bronze.
Per the CBA, that money would go into a pool to be shared with members of the men’s senior team. Similarly, the appearance and prize money the USMNT receives at Concacaf Gold Cups are split down the middle. A portion of the funds the men will take home for this summer’s ongoing Copa América will also be shared with the women’s players. But because the senior men’s team doesn’t compete at the Olympics — the men’s soccer tournament is contested by under-23 teams, with each nation allowed to include just three overage players — U.S. Soccer is not bound by those terms.
The USSF considers the men’s Olympic squad an amateur youth team like the U-17 or U-20 sides. Those teams don’t get paid for participating in international competitions on either the men’s or women’s side.
Still, all 25 players involved in U.S. U-23 coach Marko Mitrović’s pre-Olympic training camp earlier this month are full-time professionals in MLS or with clubs overseas. Eighteen of those players previously represented the U.S. at the senior level and therefore are members of the USMNT’s labor union — including 31-year-old center back Walker Zimmerman, who started three of the Americans’ four games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Ironically, Zimmerman was integral behind the scenes in securing the joint CBA with the women’s senior team that equalized World Cup prize money for both squads. FIFA, global soccer’s governing body, distributes significantly more funds to its member associations for the men’s event.
For example, FIFA paid the USSF $10.5 million after the USMNT qualified for the 2022 World Cup — more than double what Spain’s women’s team got for winning the Women’s World Cup last year. For the first time, that money was split evenly between the U.S. men’s and women’s senior teams. So were the bonuses earned by the USWNT last summer at Australia/New Zealand 2023. When the deal was struck, it made U.S. Soccer the first federation to equalize World Cup prize money for its men’s and women’s teams.
“They said equal pay for men and women was not possible, but that did not stop us and we went ahead and achieved it,” Zimmerman said after the historic joint CBA was announced in May of 2022.
The USWNT’s union filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against U.S. Soccer in 2019 seeking tens of millions of dollars in back pay and damages. The case eventually was settled out of court on the condition that World Cup prize money would be even at future men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments. But the new CBA didn’t include a carve-out for the Olympics for the men’s team.
One source told FOX Sports that candidates for the U.S. men’s Olympic squad only recently learned that they would not be compensated by the federation for playing in Paris, the first Olympics the country has qualified for on the men’s side since 2008.
Like all U.S. Olympians, players on the men’s and women’s team would be in line to receive funds from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee depending on their performance in France. The overwhelming majority of Olympic athletes are not paid to compete. The USWNT is an outlier in that regard. Although their players are also professionals, USA Basketball doesn’t pay its men’s or women’s teams, for example, but they often earn extra money through marketing deals and brand endorsements.
A U.S. Soccer spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered the United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him at @ByDougMcIntyre.
