Hope Solo to object to U.S. Soccer equal pay deal – report by Phil Perry Saturday, September 29, 2013
The latest news on the U.S. Soccer Federation’s equal pay agreement with the women’s national soccer team. (Sports Illustrated photo by Mike Stobe)
A former top FIFA official said Friday he thinks U.S. women’s national team manager Michelle Akers will lose her job if her role on the women’s soccer team is not reduced, a report said.
Yuriy Fedorov, a former Russia national team coach and executive, told The New York Times the U.S. federation could get into trouble if the women’s team manager, Akers, was not removed from her job and she lost her spot on the team, the newspaper said.
“I don’t know which team would be more upset,” the Times cited him as saying. “Of course, if a team loses, then it’s the manager’s fault.”
Earlier this week, U.S. Soccer hired veteran women’s team coach Jill Ellis as the new national team head coach under a five-year contract worth $3.2 million a year, the Times said.
U.S. Soccer’s equal pay policy with the U.S. womens national team could be seen as an attempt to keep the team from being dominated by male players when they enter the professional ranks, The Washington Post said.
“It’s very problematic because it creates a gender gap at the top and that leads to a gender gap at the bottom,” said Karen(a former U.S. soccer team player and former ESPN soccer analyst)
As an additional example, the Washington Post writer said, “The fact that it would be a conflict of interest for Jill Ellis, a coach who is in many ways still learning, to be serving as head coach for the USWNT.
“It’s a conflict of interest in that she is supposed to be teaching this group of young