Settling women’s suit a priority, U.S. Soccer’s leadership team says

The new president and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Federation said settling a lawsuit filed by women’s national team players is a priority. “A lot of damage has been done,” president Cindy Parlow Cone said in her first news conference since taking over following Carlos Cordeiro’s March 12 departure. Will Wilson, who was hired as CEO Monday, said he was “shocked and disappointed” by the USSF’s legal filings against the women.

Players claim they haven’t been paid equally to the men’s national team and asked for more than $66 million in damages under the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A federal trial is scheduled for May 5. In legal papers, the USSF claimed the women’s team didn’t have the physical abilities or the same responsibilities as the men’s team. Parlow Cone said those assertions “hurt women and girls in general” and were “personally hurtful to me.”

Wilson said it wasn’t clear whether the Olympics’ postponement would cause Nike and other sponsors to decrease payments to the USSF.