The U.S. Soccer Federation has settled its gender discrimination lawsuit with members of the U.S. women’s national team, agreeing to pay $24 million.
The agreement was reached early Tuesday to settle the case, filed in 2019 before the team won the World Cup. The 28 women who sued contended they were vastly underpaid compared to the men’s team.
On Tuesday, Megan Rapinoe, who joined the U.S. team in 2006 at age 20, celebrated the win.
“It’s a really amazing day,” she said during an appearance with longtime teammate Alex Morgan on “Good Morning America.”
“I think we’re going to look back on this day and say this is the moment that U.S. soccer changed for the better. Obviously, we can’t go back and undo the injustices that we faced, but the only justice coming out of this is we know something like this is never going to happen again and we can move forward in making soccer the best sport we possibly can in this country and setting up the next generation so much better than we ever had it.
Under the terms of the agreement, the plaintiffs will share $22 million. In addition, U.S. Soccer will create a $2 million charitable fund for women’s and girls’ soccer.
The settlement is contingent on the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement between the two sides.
The players had sought $67 million.
U.S. Soccer also agreed to pay the members of the men’s and women’s national teams the same amount in the future, whether they are competing in friendlies or the World Cup.
–Field Level Media