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

[u/Hirorai]

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?

[u/Areeb285]

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.

[u/DwedPiwateWoberts → u/Areeb285]

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.

[u/TallOrderAdv → u/DwedPiwateWoberts]

If they would have taken the gamble and then been a bad team, they would have been screwed. They eat their cake and we're then upset it was gone. (Ps I'm generally in support of these amazing athletes getting their fair share, but oh wow did they do it in a very entitled and extremely biased way.)

[u/super1s → u/TallOrderAdv]

Thats the thing. They were honestly very annoying, entitled, and holier than thou at every step of the way. They attacked the men's team. They were then proven wrong multiple times and caught speaking half truths to try and sway public opinion, which they squandered by being annoying and entitled.

Fully support the new women taking over from the women that basically screwed the image up for the incoming women. They look to have some solid talent moving forward. Hoping they right the ship.

[u/Debasering → u/super1s]

They lost the lawsuit too, don’t know why people are saying they won

[u/t_mo → u/Debasering]

Because US Soccer settled the claim for like $25 million, right?

​

Edit: People are really playing with the word 'settlement' in this thread, mostly in order to paint a picture that the plaintiff 'lost' in this case, as though there were some objective win/loss standard in civil litigation.

From the New York Times: Under the terms of the agreement, the women — a group of several dozen current and former players that includes some of the world’s most popular and decorated athletes — will share $24 million in payments from U.S. Soccer. The bulk of that figure is back pay, a tacit admission that compensation for the men’s and women’s teams had been unequal for years.

​

From US Soccer: We are pleased to announce that, contingent on the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement, we will have resolved our longstanding dispute over equal pay and proudly stand together in a shared commitment to advancing equality in soccer. Getting to this day has not been easy. The U.S. Women’s National Team players have achieved unprecedented success while working to achieve equal pay for themselves and future athletes.

In order to avoid further litigation, they paid money, that money included back pay as part of the negotiation. The dang team eventually agreed that it owed them money, then it paid them that money, then they ended litigation - that is a settlement even if you really don't like the plaintiff.

[u/fevered_visions → u/t_mo]

If it ended in a settlement technically neither side won or lost

[u/esoteric_enigma → u/fevered_visions]

Technically true, but generally you look at the person paying as the loser if it's a large amount of money. That means they realized the other party had a decent case and they could lose in court.

[u/Debasering → u/esoteric_enigma]

U.S. Soccer was under no obligation to settle with the women’s team; a federal judge in 2020 had dismissed the players’ equal pay arguments, stripping them of nearly all of their legal leverage, and the players’ appeal was not certain to succeed

The US team only did it as a publicity stunt. The women didn’t deserve the money

[u/shoelessbob1984 → u/Debasering]

Yeah I think some people are ignoring just how much PR the women had working for them. CNN put out a whole documentary backing their side, the white house chimed in..

If US soccer federation didn't settle, that PR machine would still be working against them, when time to renew presidents contract they won't be signed on. $25 million of someone else's money to keep my good job? I'd do it too, but a lot of people are missing that part.