IMHO, this was an easily winnable case - in both court and the court of public opinion. They are just going to get eaten up now. To release those documents during the freaking tournament that celebrates women's soccer... just absolutely stupid.
Also, IMHO, the rant by Judy Foudy at the end of the Shebelieves game versus Japan was overly illogical. I get that she's part of the movement, but talk about a non-fact based rant.
The men’s and women’s teams should form a joint union and collectively bargain together.
I still don’t understand why they haven’t done that yet.
which the federation should definitely publicize.
Among other things, the women - even if not selected - get health care and the federation pays their league salaries.
The women's CBA basically allows them to be full time soccer players in a world where they could not otherwise devote 100% of their time to soccer.
But if the goal is equal pay, that’s the easiest way to get it done, precisely because of what you and others wrote.
Because, let’s be honest, without that, there will never be equal pay in soccer.
The men on the national team are mostly millionaires many times over, who are mostly concerned about safety, facilities, physios, etc. and consideration with their clubs. The token compensation for them for playing internationally, frankly, doesn't matter.
The women on the national team typically make $0-$50,000 per year from their club teams, which consistently are on the brink of financial collapse and have very poor facilities and limited benefits; thus, these players need to have substantial compensation from their national team duties in order to sustain life as a high-level professional athlete.
This is the reason, even more than the obvious gigantic difference in revenue world-wide, that the status quo has been the men get more per-match compensation than the women but the women get annual contracts that the men don't.
able to dictate the theory of the case to her legal opponents.
Repair relations with the women, but not actually have to compete for anything. It’s someone’s version of perfect.