On one level, this is a horrible idea, the worst kind of political ass-kissing imaginable.
The US women's soccer team has now won four World Cups—four more than the men's team—and a Democratic senator is among those saying the women deserve to be paid at least as much as the men. Sen. Joe Manchin introduced a bill Tuesday that would withhold federal funding from the 2026 men's World Cup, which will be hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, until the US Soccer Federation agrees to equal pay for both teams, BuzzFeed reports. "The clear unequitable pay between the US men’s and women’s soccer teams is unacceptable and I’m glad the US Women’s Soccer Team latest victory is causing public outcry," Manchin said in a statement. "They are the best in the world and deserve to be paid accordingly."
Joe? You're talking about completely different games. Know how many of these women could make a men's team roster, and I'm not even talking about the USL, never mind MLS?
None.
Whatsoever.
See, that's actual equality, Joe.
On the other hand, I don't see anything wrong with withholding federal funding from the men's World Cup. The federal government has absolutely no business spending public money on the men's World Cup, the women's World Cup or similar events in the first place.
The US women's soccer team has now won four World Cups—four more than the men's team—and a Democratic senator is among those saying the women deserve to be paid at least as much as the men. Sen. Joe Manchin introduced a bill Tuesday that would withhold federal funding from the 2026 men's World Cup, which will be hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, until the US Soccer Federation agrees to equal pay for both teams, BuzzFeed reports. "The clear unequitable pay between the US men’s and women’s soccer teams is unacceptable and I’m glad the US Women’s Soccer Team latest victory is causing public outcry," Manchin said in a statement. "They are the best in the world and deserve to be paid accordingly."
Joe? You're talking about completely different games. Know how many of these women could make a men's team roster, and I'm not even talking about the USL, never mind MLS?
None.
Whatsoever.
See, that's actual equality, Joe.
On the other hand, I don't see anything wrong with withholding federal funding from the men's World Cup. The federal government has absolutely no business spending public money on the men's World Cup, the women's World Cup or similar events in the first place.
5 comments:
Given that the women generate more revenue than the men, why on earth is it important that the women can't qualify to play on a mens' team? They are doing just fine on their own.
They don't generate more revenue, not for the World Cup. The men's tournament gets more than three times as many viewers, worldwide. It's true that the women get more viewers here in the US, but the international World Cup organization, FIFA, is the one that gets the worldwide TV revenue and distributes the money to the teams. US soccer authorities have nothing to do with the distribution of World Cup revenue to the teams.
I'll agree with Chris that the federal government ought not to be involved in funding athletic tournaments, not the World Cups, the Olympics, or any other.
The federal government has absolutely no business spending public money on the men's World Cup, the women's World Cup or similar events in the first place.
+10
This is pure chuckschumerism. Gotta have your hands all over everything.
US Womens National Soccer is one of the most dominant franchises in sport, ever. Four World Cups, four-time Olympic Gold, eight of some ofther thing that I don't care about much because it's soccer.
But they did a scrimmage against FC Dallas U-15 boys and got killed.
Players' pay for women's world cup was a larger fraction of revenue than that for men's world cup, but men's world cup had over fifty times the revenue. Which is why the purse for the men was more than the revenue for the women.
And the plain fact of the matter is that the rest of the world just isn't that good at women's soccer. If we started "international kickball" or something, we'd own the damned game for at least ten years or so. Doesn't mean that we would have accomplished anything meaningful at all by bringing home world title after world title.
It gets down to this: could any of these women make a USL roster, never mind an MLS one or a roster higher than that. No, they could not. So if words mean what they say, "equality," in this situation, is nothing of the kind.
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