U.S. Soccer lobbies Dem candidates in equal pay battle

Sensing it would be a topic of discussion in last month’s Democratic presidential debates, a lobbyist for U.S. Soccer reached out to at least five candidates to argue the organization’s case that the women’s national team is fairly compensated, Politico reported Friday.

Players on the women’s team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit in March accusing U.S. Soccer of paying them lower salaries and subjecting them to more dangerous playing conditions than the men’s team. The lawsuit alleges that U.S. Soccer has “utterly failed to promote gender equality” and asserts U.S. Soccer officials have “gone so far as to claim that ‘market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men.’ ”

The women’s national team won its fourth World Cup title in July, increasing the volume of the calls for equal pay.

In letters sent in March and April, U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro was urged to fix the wage gap between the teams. The letters were signed by U.S. senators including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

U.S. Soccer Chief Communications officer Neil Buethe wrote in an email that the correspondence between the lobbyist and members of Congress was in response to those letters. The timing of that response, which came several months after the letters were sent, was part of an effort to avoid any distractions during the USWNT’s World Cup run, Buethe said.

“Instead of debating the facts about how we compensate and invest in our Women’s National Team soccer in the media in the lead-up to the World Cup, we focused on providing the team with everything they needed to win in France,” Buethe wrote. “Due to the fact that we did not respond publicly, there was a lack of information available that accurately represents how we support our Women’s National Team and women’s soccer overall, and eventually that [led] to questions and requests to provide additional information from several Members of Congress.

“In the past week, we have taken steps to simply provide more comprehensive insight that showcases the support and investment the U.S. Soccer Federation has made for many years . ...

“We want people to know that we are going to continue to push forward and do more as a leader in women’s football cross the globe.”