The U.S. Soccer Federation has hired two Washington lobbying firms to push back against claims that it pays the women’s national team less than half of what it pays the men’s team.
The women’s team was celebrated as feminist icons for winning the World Cup last month, even as it battled U.S. Soccer over what the players say is unfair pay. The players filed a lawsuit in March claiming that, under their previous contract, a player on the women’s team could have earned in a year as little as 38 percent of what a men’s team player made.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) both cited that statistic when they introduced legislation last month requiring U.S. Soccer to pay the men’s and women’s teams equally.
U.S. Soccer, which has disputed there’s a pay gap, responded by bringing on two lobbying firms, FBB Federal Relations and Van Ness Feldman, to help convince lawmakers the women’s claims are inaccurate.
“Due to the large number of requests we’ve received from policymakers since the Women’s World Cup, we are taking the proper steps to make sure that those leaders have accurate information and factual numbers that will inform them about the unmatched support and investment the U.S. Soccer Federation has provided as a leader in women’s football across the world,” Neil Buethe, a U.S. Soccer spokesman, wrote in an email to POLITICO.
Molly Levinson, a spokeswoman for the players, said in a statement they were “stunned and disappointed” U.S. Soccer “would spend sponsor dollars and revenue to advocate against laws that ensure that women are paid equally to men.”
The men’s national team described U.S. Soccer’s lobbying efforts as “disappointing but not surprising.”
“If instead of paying lawyers and lobbyists to litigate, arbitrate and lobby against current and former players and just about everyone else in the sport, they instead negotiated in good faith to enter agreements to advance soccer in the US, we would all be in a better place,” the men’s national team’s players association said in a statement to POLITICO.
In meetings late last month, the lobbyists circulated a presentation, obtained by POLITICO, that emphasizes the benefits the women’s team players receive — including a guaranteed salary, maternity leave, a nanny subsidy, health benefits, retirement perks, and injury protection — that players on the men’s team do not.
The presentation states the women’s team players was paid far more than those on the men’s team last year, earning $275,478 in average cash compensation per player, compared with $57,283 for the men’s team.
Comparing compensation between the two teams isn’t as simple as it would seem because they play different numbers of games each year and because players on the women’s team receive a base salary, while the men’s team players do not. U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro wrote in an open letter last week that U.S. Soccer had paid the women’s team more than the men’s team over the past decade — a statistic that the men’s and women’s teams both said was misleading.
Levinson, the spokeswoman for the women’s team players, said the presentation circulated by U.S. Soccer’s lobbyists “inflated and cherry-picked numbers.” The numbers don’t take into account that the women’s team played 20 games last year, racking up 18 wins and two draws, Levinson said. The men’s team played 11 games last year, winning three, drawing three and losing five.
U.S. Soccer general counsel Lydia Wahlke, two lobbyists, and a lawyer retained by U.S. Soccer met last week with staffers for Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Feinstein, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
DeLauro is one of more than 70 co-sponsors of Matsui’s bill, which would withhold federal funding for the 2026 World Cup, set to be hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, if U.S. Soccer doesn't pay the women’s and men’s teams equally. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) introduced an identical bill in the Senate last month, which has drawn a dozen co-sponsors, including Feinstein.
Feinstein and Murray also introduced a separate bill last month mandating equal pay for women’s national and Olympic teams, noting the women’s national hockey team has had to fight for higher pay, too. None of the bills has attracted any Republican co-sponsors.
Buethe, the U.S. Soccer spokesman, wrote in an email that the lobbyists hired by U.S. Soccer aren’t trying to derail the legislation, only to provide accurate information about how much the men’s and women’s teams are paid.
But one of the lobbyists representing U.S. Soccer — Ray Bucheger, a former Democratic congressional staffer who’s now a partner at FBB — told a Democratic congressional staffer late last month that one of the bills could jeopardize the country’s chances of hosting future Women’s World Cups, according to a person familiar with the conversation. Bucheger declined to comment.
Neither FBB nor Van Ness Feldman has registered to lobby for U.S. Soccer yet. Lobbyists are required by law to register within 45 days of being hired, and Buethe said they would do so.
Murray said the lobbying efforts wouldn’t deter her from advancing her legislation.
“No matter where she works — on a soccer field, in an office or in a restaurant — no woman should be paid less than her male colleagues for the same work,” Murray said in a statement to POLITICO. “I’m going to keep pushing for legislation to close the gender pay gap and I’m going to keep standing with women across the country to hold companies accountable when they try to sweep this problem under the rug.”
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
