PARIS, FRANCE - DECEMBER 08: Cindy Parlow Cone (R) during the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 ... [+]
Getty ImagesThe story of where the battle is between U.S. Soccer and its most successful team, the women’s national squad, can be told in the simple contrast between two quotes.
Cindy Parlow Cone, interim president after the ill-advised suit, and language within the legal filings that resulted, forced Carlos Cordeiro from the post, expressed, repeatedly, her sorrow over those filings.
“In the previous filing, I think it’s one thing to argue that men and women play in different tournaments and play against different teams,” she said in a conference call with new U.S. Soccer CEO Will Wilson, meant to introduce Wilson, but which turned into primarily a Q&A on the lawsuit. “It’s altogether a different statement to say therefore, the women carry less responsibility or have less ability. And I think that’s where I personally was set off and didn’t really appreciate the language in there, and tweeted out my displeasure and disavowing the language that, therefore, because we play different teams that we have for some reason, less ability or less responsibility.”
This came in response to one of several questions that Cone left unanswered: the language was used by lawyers in an attempt to fight the players from what they see as unequal pay. The legal strategy remains the same. U.S. Soccer is, even now, seeking a victory via summary judgement, a Pyrrhic victory if ever one existed, codifying into legal terms the very treatment that has led the national team to fight a largely successful public relations battle, and created fissures that Cone herself, a former member of that national team, is uncomfortable with, and says she intends to begin the work of fixing.
Now here’s what a spokesperson for the national team, Molly Levinson, told Meg Linehan in response: “The solution here is clear, simple and unequivocal. Equal. Pay.”
The shorter and pithier you are in public battles, the likelier you are to be winning them. And clearly, the players are doing just that.
So it isn’t so much that Cone and Wilson, both of whom expressed a desire to heal the break between federation and players, are insincere. There’s no reason to think that at all.
Rather, it’s that there’s no good answer to the question of how that starts to happen without an end to a legal battle that, by definition, is U.S. Soccer calling for continued treatment the players view as untenable.
Accordingly, it was disconcerting to hear Cone say that there weren’t even settlement talks scheduled.
“Well, right now, there's not one that's on the schedule, but we are hopeful that we can schedule one very soon,” she said. “I think it's challenging right now, with the backdrop of Coronavirus and because I'm a big believer in getting people in the same room and finding resolutions, so, in the meantime, we may have to settle with jumping on phone calls. So I'm hopeful that this will be the case in the coming weeks.”
Indeed, a phone call would more than suffice, one would imagine, for U.S. Soccer to call and meet the terms set out by the players. An email would probably do it, too.
What everyone wonders is twofold: what has the elevation of Cone, who did not rule out running for the presidential post full-time but did not say she would either, meant for the balance of power at U.S. Soccer. And does Wilson, whose messaging mirrored Cone on this call, represent another voice in the room to move past this chapter? Or is he part of the group that plans to continue pursuing the legal action?
Another unknown: given their superior position, can the players now, in settlement talks, ask for more?
But first, there need to be settlement talks. And as Cone herself pointed out, that’s merely the beginning.
“Settling this dispute is only the first step,” Cone said. “But the next step is a long process. I think a lot of people damage has been done. And I think we are going to have to rebuild that trust and rebuild relationship. And it's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take a lot of effort and time and energy from the US Soccer side to rebuild that trust not only with our U.S. women's national team players, but with our fans and everyone engaged in the sport.”
And what the call reinforced is that for U.S. Soccer to publicly push forward on any front — there is, let’s not forget, a men’s senior team as well, along with numerous other competing squads, all of whom are lost in the cacophony of conversation about the lawsuit filed by the USWNT — will not happen until this is settled.
It’s hard to believe there’s a financial value on winning this in court that’s worth more than all of that.
2020-03-26 17:13:06Z
https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardmegdal/2020/03/26/uswnt-lawsuit-cindy-parlow-cone-us-soccer-still-need-to-square-the-circle/
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