Sources: U.S. Men's Olympic Soccer Team Will Not Be Paid at Paris Games

Doug McIntyre

Football journalist

So much for equal pay.

The unions representing the U.S. men's and women's national soccer teams joined forces two years ago to reach a historic collective bargaining agreement that ensures players on both teams receive the same bonuses and prize money for representing their countries at World Cups and other competitions. However, a loophole in the agreement means the U.S. Soccer Federation will not pay members of the U.S. men's Olympic soccer team for their participation in next month's Summer Olympics in Paris, multiple sources confirm to FOX Sports. American Soccer Now was first to report the news.

The 18 players selected Wednesday to be part of the U.S. women's Olympic team will receive their full bonuses under their collective bargaining agreement: $10,000 per game, plus an additional $12,000 for each victory and $4,000 for each tie. The U.S. women's team, four-time Olympic champions, will also receive a bonus of $36,000 per player for winning the gold medal, $24,000 for silver or $8,000 for bronze.

According to the ABC, this money would be paid into a prize pool which would be shared with members of the senior men's team. Likewise, the appearance and prize money the USMNT receives at Concacaf Gold Cups are split down the middle. Part of the funds the men win for this summer's Copa Amrica will also be shared with the women's players. But as the senior men's team does not compete in the Olympics, the men's football tournament is contested by teams under the age of 23, with each nation allowed to include only three over-age players. US Soccer is not bound by these terms.

The USSF considers the men's Olympic team to be a youth amateur team, like the U-17 or U-20 teams. These teams are not paid for their participation in international competitions, whether on the men's or women's side.

The 25 players who participated in U.S. Under-23 coach Marko Mitrovi's pre-Olympic training camp earlier this month are all full-time professionals in MLS or at overseas clubs. Eighteen of those players have previously represented the United States at the senior level and are therefore members of the USMNT union, including 31-year-old center back Walker Zimmerman, who started three of the Americans' four games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Ironically, Zimmerman was instrumental in securing the joint CBA with the senior women's team that leveled the World Cup prize money for both teams. FIFA, world soccer's governing body, distributes far more funds to its member associations for the men's event.

For example, FIFA paid the USSF $10.5 million after the U.S. national team qualified for the 2022 World Cup, more than double what the Spanish women's team received for winning at the Women's World Cup last year. For the first time, this money was split equally between the U.S. men's and women's senior teams. So did the bonuses earned by the U.S. women's national team last summer during the 2023 Australia/New Zealand World Cup. When the deal was completed, it made U.S. Soccer the first federation to equalize World Cup prize money for its men's and women's teams.

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“They said equal pay for men and women was not possible, but that didn’t stop us and we went ahead and got there,” Zimmerman said after the landmark joint agreement was announced in May 2022.

The USWNT union filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against US Soccer in 2019, seeking tens of millions of dollars in back pay and damages. The matter was eventually settled out of court on the condition that World Cup prize money would be equal at future men's and women's World Cup tournaments. But the new collective agreement did not provide for an exclusion for the Olympic Games for the men's team.

A source told FOX Sports that the U.S. men's Olympic team candidates only recently learned they would not be compensated by the federation for playing in Paris, the first Olympics the country has qualified for on the men's side since 2008.

Like all U.S. Olympians, players on the men's and women's teams would be in line to receive funds from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee based on their performance in France. The overwhelming majority of Olympic athletes are not paid to compete. The USWNT is an exception in this regard. Although their players are also professionals, USA Basketball does not pay its men's or women's teams, for example, but they often earn extra money through marketing deals and brand endorsements.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Soccer Federation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. Prior to joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a writer at ESPN and Yahoo Sports and covered the U.S. men's and women's national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.

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