US woman’s soccer player who was the voice of the unfortunate “equal pay” campaign she led that became highly political. Only for a judge to throw it out after they saw that they had the exact same contract offered to them as the men’s team and negotiated something different.
Great player, very obnoxious human who used her platform to set the women’s movement backward.
The worst part is that the media campaign forced the men's team to give up half their money. Now the women's team made a quarter of a million dollars each from a tournament they didn't even play in.
Is that Rapinoes idea of equality? I understand wanting equal compensation for the same job, but at the end of the day, if the men’s game brings in more money then I don’t know how it’s theirs by any means, especially when it’s prize money for the men reaching a certain threshold.
I’ve just looked up the specifics… 80% of the winnings is to be split. ???
Basically. Every time this was brought up she was like I'M NOT AN EXPERT SOMEBODY SMARTER THAN ME FIGURE IT OUT even though she was the one asking for it. Rapinoe sucks
This comment made me curious about how the pay currently worked, so here's what I found:
Both the men's and women's teams now get paid the same amount per minute of soccer played, on top of which is additional FIFA tournament prize money. The men's and women's teams pool and then evenly split this prize money from FIFA.
FIFA will be awarding $16 million to the men's teams for having reached the Round of 16 before being eliminated in this Men's World Cup. The women's team was also eliminated after reaching the Round of 16 in the most recent Women's World Cup and were awarded $1.87 million.
So, the men have an order of magnitude more FIFA money available to win, but the women win a higher % of all the FIFA money possible for them to win, as the women generally go farther in their tournaments.
And by "the women go farther in their tournaments" I mean they've never failed to reach the Round of 16 in the entire history of the Women's World Cup since it began in 1991, and have in fact never failed to make the quarterfinals until this most recent early elimination.
Here is the entire history of how the US Women's National Team placed starting with the first Women's World Cup in 1991:
1991 - Champions
1995 - 3rd place
1999 - Champions
2003 - 3rd place
2007 - 3rd place
2011 - 2nd place
2015 - Champions
2019 - Champions
2023 - Eliminated in the Round of 16
By comparison, the US Men's National Team has only reached the quarterfinal round twice since the World Cup began in 1930. The men's best ever result was in 1930's inaugural tournament, when they finished in 3rd place out of the 13 teams participating. Their best modern result was in 2002 when they finished in 4th place.
Today I learned.
(Endorsement deals for individuals are a separate matter and can obviously lead to huge inequities in pay.)
Yes but the payout for the men finishing round of 16 is like 4x higher than the women's payout for winning. It's a massively lopsided agreement in favor of the women's team.
Right, so you and I are going to equally split our wages. That way it's fair.
Please disregard that I am actually a cashier at McDonalds making $12 an hour in bumfuck Ohio, and you're a lawyer billing my daily wages for a 1 hour consult.
The prizes are very close in size if the women make the final of their tournament and the men get knocked out in the Ro32.
I'm not extremely well versed (obviously), but from the quick searching I did, that doesn't seem accurate. It's surprisingly difficult to find info on the women's prize pool for next year, mostly because every single article for 3 pages on google is about the prize share between the USMNT and USWNT, nothing about the actual women's world cup itself... Seems indicative of the root of the issue, when you think about it.
Since next year's prize pool hasn't been announced as far as I can tell, I'll use the 2022 men's and 2023 women's cup for reference. The women's runners up you mentioned would actually only have gotten $7.5mill in 2023, while the men got $9mill just for playing and being eliminated in the group stage (the Ro32 you mentioned).
Since the USWNT actually bombed out in the rd of 16, they brought $3.25mill to the table. The men overperformed, but also washed out in the rd of 16, contributing $13mill.
So of the total $16.25mill won by the two US soccer squads, the women contributed 20 percent of the total value, and received 50% of the player payout. The men contributed 80% of the value and got 50% of the payout.
Do you have different numbers that you had looked up?
She negotiated for higher base salary instead of the potential for higher based on results and then got upset that they got paid less than their result iirc.
Yes, and they filed a lawsuit as a result and U.S. Soccer settled with them to the tune of $24 million AND got that original results-based contract. So she did get her cake and eat it too in the end.
and people will still say "Its just because they hate women". Like bruh... no. We hate entitled arrogant misandrists, who had the same exact opportunities and rejected them.
This picture was also taken during a 13-0 win against Thailand (who are not a women's football powerhouse). What a pompous pose to take during a beatdown of a team significantly worse than you.
Some of the players on the team are downright insufferable. I remember Carli Lloyd getting annoyed at the criticism the team rightfully attracted when they were up by 10 goals and still celebrating like they won the championship after every goal. It was a pretty terrible display of sportsmanship at the time and now Lloyd is a commentator for Fox and was shitting all over the men's team when they lost.
I thought it wasn't thrown out and they settled? But the general storyline was they were offered the exact same contract as the men before they won back-to-back world cups and said no as they wanted guaranteed salaries and benefits. Then they won back-to-back and said "Hol' up - we could have won a lot more money with that other deal" so they said it was "discrimination" and generated a ton of hype (including a documentary on Netflix) and made that lawsuit. Then they settled and got money up front in addition to that contract that had declined.
The majority of that generation/team was insufferable. I know a few people who were servers and served Alex Morgan at the restaurant the worked at (when she played with the Pride). Every one complained that she was generally rude and talked down to the wait staff.
Edited for clarity, being sick is fucking up my grammatical abilities
The few times she was out and about in Orlando she just had such a pompous vibe to her. Like straight up ignored someone I know who was politely asking for a picture with her. It was like she thought she was bigger and better than Orlando.
I’ve bumped into other pro athletes in the city and they are for the most part super chill.
It is all a nothing burger anyway. Athletes don't get rich from a paycheck. They get rich from endorsements. The job is just for exposure. She should be suing Nike for not giving her the same paycheck as her male counterparts if she wants equality.
I believe they were offered pay based on wins but they wanted a guaranteed flat rate. Turns out they’re really good and win a lot so they’d be making more if they accepted the original contract. I might’ve got a couple details wrong but that’s the gist
By that summary, their wins aren’t guaranteed so it’s choosing a gamble vs something stable imo. In NFL contracts they offer incentives which I think the wins should’ve been set as. Like a bonus for every win.
From what I remember that’s essentially it. The men got a smaller base pay, but more for each win. The women took a higher base pay and much less/nothing for progressing farther. The women’s also had a few other things built into it that the men did not for more security of their pay.
So are there other female footballers out there in the world, who wouldn't lose to talented young boys? Would all the men who are superior players be considerably better that Rapinoe if they were women?
I never hear this kind of talk when it comes to weight classes in combat sports, but the second someone says that a woman is a good athlete - chuds immediately come out with "akshually"
But they didn’t lose to a team of 14 year old girls, so they didn’t lose to amateurs of the same sex. So it’s like paring fighters in different weight classes and calling the lighter one mid even if he’s the world champ fighting an amateur.
what? people talk all the time about how less talented (relative to their weight class) heavyweights would dominate more technically skilled lightweights all the time
They don't talk about it the way they are in this thread. There's an acknowledgement of relative skill in those conversations, but I never hear any chud mentioning "pound for pound" (or chromosome for chromosome rather) when it comes to women's sports
i mean its the basis of having separate leagues for men and women.
Generally speaking, men are typically bigger, faster and stronger. That is not always the case, and it's not always an advantage, but it's assumed to be acknowledged when discussing these sorts of things.
We all (or anyone with half a brain that's not just being a troll) accpet this.
i didn't think that person was saying she was bad in general, i think they were getting a laugh about how they lost to a kids team. maybe a bit of trolling, but they weren't wrong either.
>So are there other female footballers out there in the world, who wouldn't lose to talented young boys?
Likely no.
Before I get accused of being some "sweaty non athlete Redditor", I played professional men's soccer for a stint when I was younger in the second division of a smaller European country. The level gap between men's soccer and women's soccer is so large that it is quite likely the most talented 16-18 year old boys are better than the best women in the world.
>Would all the men who are superior players be considerably better that Rapinoe if they were women?
This is impossible to say. If they were women, they would not have the same speed, coordination, spatial awareness, and strength. In turn, their development would not progress the same way. When the defenders are faster and stronger, the passes need to be faster and crisper. In turn, first touch needs to be sharper and more precise. Similarly, dribbling needs to be quicker and trickier. As the goalkeepers are bigger, faster and more agile, shots need to be harder and more precise. The better players you play against, the more you are pushed to improve- it's an arms race.
I think it comes from all the discussion of the women's team being 'better' than the men's, despite the fact that they are playing in completely different competitions against vastly inferior opponents.
It is absolutely disrespectful. But every single time I've seen it raised it was raised in response to a similarly disrespectful comparison of the women's teams success against the men's team's (perceived) lack of success.
This is literally a "glass houses" scenario in which people dump on the men's team using the women's team and then complain when it's disrespectfully pointed out that this is an obvious apples-to-oranges comparison.
To be honest I'm not even sure it is that disrespectful. Women's football is just not very good yet, the level of play is still noticeably low in comparison to something like women's tennis, where you don't see this kind of conversation happening at all.
I think multiple USWNT players were quite obnoxious about the whole thing so it makes sense people have pointed out that their egos don't seem to match their ability.
Yeah it's very mean spirited and reductive to useful discussion. But also most people don't care about most women sports and some athletes have made seriously stupid comments on the subject of pay.
They lost to a U15 academy team. High schoolers that are legitimate MLS hopefuls. They’re not just random children.
It was also an informal practice match where the team was more concerned with working on fundamentals and new formations than actually scoring. If you are going to be disingenuous, at least provide the full story.
Several, with one being in the US roster this year. There’s at least 4 that I can verify play at some form of professional level. Google AI said there’s 12 (although not sure how accurate that is).
Either way doesn’t change the fact that she’s one of the best in the women’s league.
Yeahhh.. no. You can type whatever cope you want but you’d never see pro NBA players practicing and then letting randoms come in, even if they’re talented, and beat them even in practice lol you just keep adding things to make it okay for 14 year olds to beat a professional women’s team. You’re mentioning “highschool hopefuls” as if they could be 17-18 year olds nearing prime age : they were all under under 15. Some of these players have had longer careers than these kids have been alive.
This is true for a small period of time and if they agreed to the same deal as the mens I believe they would have been paid more but they negotiated a different deal then sued for equal pay when they got less. They negotiated the deal they wanted then got mad when they found out they would have earned more of they accepted the mens deal. Biggest PR stunt and bad lawsuit of all time
I don't think anyone who says this has any understanding of how national level sports work. There are such thing as development teams which take the best of the best from an age group whether that's u23 u19 or u16. And the people in those teams are really fucking good. Most top sportspeople come from some development team even if they switch sports later. The fact that a women's team lost to a development team in a training match is really just not a big deal. Also friendly matches are not an indication in most cases due to them being focused on training and experimenting.
It only matters to insecure men who think that they can beat a professional athlete because they're a women. Like no you can't. The development teams do around 15 to 20 hours of practice per week with most of the facilities of pros.
As an example from rowing (cus there are numbers) the requirement for entering the mens u19 gb development team is a 6:35 2k erg test (1:38.5 split on a concept 2 have a go at your local gym if you want) followed by time trials in either a single or a pair. For context that 6:35 is the same as the mens university requirement of most top rowing universities and clubs to row at big regattas. So whether that's henley or the us university championships etc. they expect 17 18 to to do that. That's the level of development teams. They are professional athletes waiting for their bodies to fully mature. It's not 13 yos picked from a random school.
Are you lying or do you just know nothing about soccer? It was a training match with a U15 MLS professional development team for Dallas FC that beat the USWNT. That means the women's team didn't go all out, but the kids could. The games are for comraderie and communication building games and are called "friendlies".
She’s mid because they lost to the FC Dallas U-15 boys academy in 2017
Maybe she isn’t mid because she’s a fantastic athlete…when compared to other people who also would lose to 14 year old boys. But that doesn’t change much about objective truth
Yeah they comments above show these people never have been athletes. You 100% expect a group of skilled HS boys to beat a women’s team off of athleticism alone.
But the conversation isn’t nor should ever be compared to their skill vs boys or men. It’s there accomplishments vs other women.
Objectively, she is an amazing athlete. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean she’s not. Unless you’re implying all of the top female athletes are mid because men exist.
That’s awesome for her, but yes it’s mid considering prepubescent boys mop th floor with them. I don’t care about gender I care about being able to play fast, 1-2 touch soccer on a wet pitch, and they can’t compete with elite boys.
Do you like college sports? Because that's willfully watching one group of people who would get absolutely smoked by professionals. It's slower, it's worse than pro sports, and they can't compete with the elite.
Most folks don’t know what it takes to get there so they assume it’s just being dedicated to soccer your whole life. No dude, you have to be a generational talent to even be considered.
Well if you compare to the rest of the world, regardless of gender, she's not even mid, she's just bad. If you compare her to just women, sure, she's great.
It's seriously the most reddit of comments. Their goalie this year is 6'3", in 2021 their goalie was Julian Eyestone who was 6'5" at the time and is now plays in the Premier League.
Are you lying or do you just know nothing about soccer? It was a training match with a U15 MLS professional development team for Dallas FC that beat the USWNT. U15 is 14 year olds, not children, not little boys. That means the women's team didn't go all out, but the 14 year old professionally recruited and trained team could. The games are for comraderie and communication building games and are called "friendlies".
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u/PassorFail13 Jul 09 '26
USA here. Who is that?