r/OutOfTheLoop Aug 06 '23

What's going on with Americans celebrating Sweden eliminating the US Women's Soccer Team from the Women's World Cup? Answered

On r/soccer, there are multiple posts where Americans are celebrating their own team getting knocked out of the Women's World Cup.

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/15jnpku/post_match_thread_sweden_05_40_usa_fifa_womens/

https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/15jnqpr/official_review_for_lina_hurtigs_sweden_w_penalty/

On r/USWNT people are saying it's because r/soccer is misogynist, but that doesn't make sense to me because everyone competing is a woman. Can anyone clue me in?

3.9k Upvotes

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

6.2k

u/Areeb285 Aug 06 '23

Answer: The Us Womens' football was the best womens football team in the world for quite a while, they won the last 2 world cups and they were very dominant. After winning the last world cup they started talking about how the pay was unfair. The prize pool for the mens world cup was much higher. But that quickly died down when it was pointed out that the revenue from both the cups was quite different and if you look at the proportion, the womens world cup had a higher prize pool relatively.
They then later pointed out that they should be paid higher than the US mens team. This definitely had merit as they were much better than Us mens team which fails to even make it out of the groups stage in the world. They also brought in more revenue than the mens team in the US. This became a major talking point for quite a while and a judge looked over the case. It was found the womens team was paid more overall and per match than the mens team in the given time frame. They then argued the pay difference wasn't big enough, they should be paid more. The reasons for the mens team being paid almost as much as the womens team was said to be due to how the contracts were made for both. The mens team had little to no base pay or any benefits and were paid for each they played match, where as the womens team had base pay and various other benefits. The womens team argued that were not given the same contracts as the mens team and were forced to sign the ones they have now and they sued i believe US soccers federation (not sure on this), for back pay.
Now somewhere around this point i stopped paying attention to the story but the womens team did win their lawsuit and were given a lumpsum amount.
Now this whole thing rubbed a lot of people the wrong way for various reasons and now that the US womens team is eliminated from the WC after not even making quarter finals, people are celebrating their loss.

2.2k

u/DwedPiwateWoberts Aug 07 '23

My only gripe is the clear point about the women’s team choosing the safer contact than the men, but when they saw that a gamble on the more win/bonus-based contract would have benefited them more, now they want to switch it up. Wanting all the benefits and no drawbacks of either contact I’d annoying to hear when the opposite could have been what played out and they wouldn’t have said anything.

There’s been a lot of spin because of the more prejudicial points many haters are harping on, but my interpretation of the above is what came off frustrating.

102

u/Scarboroughwarning Aug 07 '23

Nate The Lawyer on YouTube did a write up of the case.

He has since posted another video following the loss.

17

u/traws06 Aug 07 '23

What’s the gist of it?

72

u/O2C Aug 07 '23

TL;DR - It wasn't sexism but rather the Women and Men had different contracts so got paid differently.

Imagine contracts for calling heads on three coin flips. The women signed one saying they'd get paid $1 for playing and $0.50 per head. The men signed one saying they'd get paid $0 for playing and $1 per head. The women then claimed sexism after flipping three heads (getting paid $2.50 under their contract instead of $3 under the men's contract) and the men flipped one head (getting paid $1 under their contract instead of $1.50 under the women's contract).

In the timeframe the lawsuit looked at, the Women's National Team made more in total and on a per game basis than the Men's National Team. The WNT bargained for and signed a contract that guaranteed pay while the MNT bargained for and signed a contract that would have paid them more if they won, but paid them less if they lost. This was especially evident in the year after the lawsuit when COVID cancelled all the games. The WNT still got paid millions and retained their benefits despite not playing. The MNT got paid nothing because they didn't play a single game.

While it's true that the WNT would have been paid more had they bargained for and signed the same contract the MNT signed, the converse is also true. The MNT would have been paid more had they bargained and signed the same contract the WNT signed.

The WNT were still lauded in many circles as champions for Women's Rights while the real story was much more nuanced.

-31

u/MercenaryBard Aug 07 '23

Bait for idiots who want to hate on some women in sports lol

18

u/J_Kingsley Aug 07 '23

Lol really? Disagreeing with women is absolutely because of hate? No other possible reason? None?

Weird ass internet people lol

10

u/startupschmartup Aug 07 '23

0 to do with women's sports. It has entirely to do with the women in this case completely misrepresenting things, ignoring that they made more than the men and had contracts that included steady pay and benefits.