For years, U.S. Soccer has utilized the slogan “One Nation. One Team,” – a signpost of unity among a diverse group of national teams and an even more diverse set of fans across the country.
But up until this week, it was just that: a slogan.
Now, thanks to a groundbreaking pair of collective bargaining agreements signed by the U.S. men’s national team and U.S. women’s national team, the two are inextricably linked. For the first time and in some tangibly significant ways, the USWNT and USMNT will really be functioning as One Team.
To solve the vexing problem of the massive gulf between men’s and women’s World Cup prize money awarded by FIFA, the two American national teams came up with a novel solution: pool all their winnings together and split them down the middle.
“We’ll be each other’s biggest cheerleaders,” USMNT defender Walker Zimmerman said on a conference call. “I can’t wait to watch the women in the 2023 World Cup and I know they’ll be cheering us on in 2022 in Qatar.”
There will be more than just national pride at stake when the USWNT watches the men later this year, and then the exercise is reversed in 2023. Now, every goal, every win, every step forward in their respective tournaments means more money for everyone.
“When they score, we’ll cheer just a little bit harder,” said USWNT forward Midge Purce.
Throughout negotiations, U.S. Soccer continuously insisted that no CBA would be possible unless the two sides agreed to equalize World Cup prize money. The demand put pressure on the men to give up some of their potential World Cup earnings.
The men, to their credit, did eventually do so. But this wasn’t a simple case of charity. There is plenty of room for growth on the women’s side and the paltry sum that FIFA awards women is destined to increase. The genius of the concurrent CBAs is that now, by advocating for their female counterparts across the world, the men will simultaneously be advocating for themselves.
If the USMNT wants to earn more money from its CBA, a good place to start would be to join the chorus of voices imploring FIFA to rectify the embarrassingly large gulf in its World Cup prize money.
U.S. national teams can also train their focus on CONCACAF. Under the terms of the new CBAs, the USWNT and USMNT will not only pool together and split prize money from World Cups, but from other official competitions like the Gold Cup and W Gold Cup.
The more pressure builds on FIFA and CONCACAF, the more likely change will come.
“That is the next step, for other federations around the world to look to see what we have done and start to do it themselves,” U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone said, “and encouraging confederations as well as FIFA to equalize all prize money, whether it’s the Gold Cup or a World Cup.”
Now linked contractually, the two national teams could further strengthen those ties outside of the board room in years to come.
“The collaboration that we’ve seen, especially throughout these negotiations, has definitely improved and created personal relationships with the men and the women,” Zimmerman said.
“I’m hoping that in the future as we continue to partner together, continue to fight for things together, that we’re just going to have a lot more interaction. There will be times where maybe we’re in camp together, maybe we’re having doubleheaders. Who knows?”
Zimmerman’s suggestions may have seemed far-fetched in the past, but there is now the sense that U.S. Soccer and its flagship teams are ready to live up to that ubiquitous slogan.
“I really do feel it’s one nation, one team,” Purce said. “That sentiment is really strong.”
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