Adidas sponsored female players will get equal bonuses like males for winning World Cup
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Adidas-sponsored players on the team that wins the FIFA Women’s World Cup this year will receive the same performance bonus payments as their male counterparts, the sportswear company said on Friday.
Business Insider reports that the announcement follows news that the U.S. women’s national soccer team is suing their federation with allegations of gender discrimination, where all 28 members of the squad were named as plaintiffs in federal court.
Adidas’ head of global brands Eric Liedtke said the company wanted to help encourage the next generation of sportswomen.
“Today we are announcing that all Adidas athletes on the winning 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup team will receive the same performance bonus payout as their male peers,” Liedtke said in the statement.
On International Women’s Day, they showed that fighting mentality off the field when the team’s 28 players sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for “years of ongoing institutionalized gender discrimination,” according to a press release.
The suit is the latest phase in a battle for equality that launched in 2016 when the team’s highest-profile players filed a wage discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The players, including Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd, argued that despite working as hard as — and even outperforming — the U.S. soccer men’s team, they received less compensation.
