Andy Scholes walks through US Soccer’s landmark equal pay deal
In August 2006, the U.S. Soccer Federation and the Professional Soccer Players Association reached agreement in principle on a landmark equal pay deal for international soccer players. The deal guarantees that the salary of men’s international soccer players will be equal to that of women’s international soccer players on the basis of the most-recent year of the players’ active international careers and the previous year of international eligibility.
We had only just celebrated our 10th anniversary of doing this deal at the time of publication. So far, we have had a record number of players come on board. At the end of March, the number of signees to the deal was 75 (men’s and women’s); at the end of July, we had 97 (men’s and women’s) and at the end of August we had 97 (men’s and women’s). In total, we now have over 1,000 international soccer players who either signed the deal or have not yet signed, to which we’ve added more in the coming months.
The U.S. Soccer Players Association has worked with us, the U.S. Soccer Federation and our members in their attempt to bring a level playing field, both for those involved and for their families, at an international level. We have seen the growth in the number of girls playing soccer and we have also seen the growth in the number of international soccer players. We have seen the expansion of the high school age group from the age groups of 9 through 12 to the age groups of 13 through 15, to the age groups of 16 through 20.
During the past 10 years, we’ve seen the growth of clubs around the country, especially in the Northeast and the Midwest, where we are seeing the growth of clubs, the growth of soccer players, and the growth of our national teams. We’ve seen the expansion of the number of U.S. Soccer teams and clubs, and we’ve seen the growth of the number of youth programs in high schools in the United States and around the world. We’ve also seen the growth of the number of girls playing soccer at the high school level and the