With The Lawsuit Settled, All Roads Lead To A New CBA

2/22/2022 will go down as a historic day in the growth of professional women’s soccer.

After a long hard fought legal battle with the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), a settlement has been reached that will see the US women receiving equal pay as the US men’s team for international appearances and tournament prize money. It shouldn’t have been this hard but with the players united it was always going to be an odd hill to die on for the USSF hierarchy.

This settlement will see $24 million allocated to US players, and lays the groundwork for a more ‘player focused’ USSF. However, the work isn’t completely finished — as Becky Sauerbrunn pointed out — USSF and the USWNTPA still have to negotiate the rest of their Collective Bargaining Agreement… which may still take some time.

A quick note on yesterday…truth is this work has spanned decades and generations; and not just within women’s soccer, but all women’s sports. We couldn’t have done any of this without the 99ers. Not without Venus, Serena and Billie Jean. Not without the @TheWNBPA and many more. — Becky Sauerbrunn

It is genuinely mind blowing how hard these women had to fight for equal pay in this way. A program that has historically punched above its’ weight given the divergency of resources between the men’s and…