Hope Solo to object to U.S. Soccer equal pay deal
U.S. women’s national team head coach Jill Ellis has made it clear she won’t support equal pay for U.S. men’s national team players, but that stance has drawn a sharp reaction from the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Ellis, who won a bronze medal with the U.S. at the London Olympics, last December made it clear she would not support the deal the federation approved to equalize pay between the men’s and women’s teams in the 2018 Concacaf Women’s Championship in Trinidad and Tobago.
Last week Ellis said she would continue to pursue legal action against U.S. Soccer for supporting the deal, which would see the U.S. pay $1,000 per month to each of the 24-member national teams who compete at the championship. And on Saturday Ellis said she would support equal pay by the men’s national team players, not just the U.S. Soccer men’s national team players.
“I did not agree to it and I’m not on board with it, but I respect what the federation put together,” Ellis told reporters at a women’s soccer camp in San Jose, Calif. “That’s what they had to do to get the deal done. I wasn’t consulted on that, and I’m not on board with it, but I respect what they did.”
U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said no final decisions have been made about what could happen to Ellis and U.S. women’s senior manager Hope Solo for violating the federation’s anti-discrimination policy.
“I take the issue very seriously when it comes to discrimination in our society,” Gulati said at a news conference. “Let me be clear: Discrimination will not and cannot be tolerated by the U.S. Soccer Federation. We have strict anti-discrimination policies that are consistently enforced by the federation and we hold both women and men to those standards.”
U.S. Soccer and Ellis are in contact with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is investigating the Equal Pay Act complaint filed by Solo, 24, who has played 20 international matches for the Americans while earning $200,000 from U.S. Soccer during her career.
“This is a civil rights case that has been brought forth by Hope Solo, a U.S. women’s national
