The U.S. women’s soccer team protested against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) Wednesday night by turning their jerseys inside out.
The USWNT has taken the field with their warm up jerseys inside out, hiding the US Soccer crest.
This is in response to the latest legal filings by the US Soccer Federation in the gender discrimination lawsuit filed by 28 US players. (@espnW) pic.twitter.com/BTZgYeeNMD
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 12, 2020
This covered the logo of the USSF on the chest of the players. The players filed a gender discrimination lawsuit last year against the USSF, the trial scheduled for May 5th. This week, the USSF submitted legal papers stating that women are less skilled and have easier roles than their male counterparts. “I think it just was a powerful message,” said Carli Lloyd to the AP, “I’m really proud of this group because this is not an easy thing. Like I said, we don’t want to be in this position, but we’re here and it’s just got to be better.” (RELATED: U.S. Women’s National Team Players Seek $66M Dollars In Damages)
11:41 p.m. ET, and away we go.
First up, #USWNT players opposition to U.S. Soccer’s motion for summary judgement. pic.twitter.com/4w6v57XnqZ
— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) March 10, 2020
USSF president Carlos Cordiero released an apology during the women’s game last night and promised a change in the federation’s legal team. “On behalf of U.S. Soccer, I sincerely apologize for the offense and pain caused by language in this week’s court filing, which did not reflect the values of our federation or our tremendous admiration of our women’s national team,” Cordeiro said. “Our WNT players are incredibly talented and work tirelessly, as they have demonstrated time and again from their Olympic gold medals to their World Cup titles.”
US Soccer sponsor Coca-Cola statement to the @WSJ on the federation’s recent court filing in pay-discrimination case: https://t.co/IYgSZ6wvZu pic.twitter.com/YcYtU372kW
— Rachel Bachman (@Bachscore) March 11, 2020
Coca-Cola Co., a team sponsor for years also released a statement this week calling the legal arguments “unacceptable and offensive” and requested to meet with the federation to discuss the matter further. “I think it’s just very unfortunate timing. All of it. Obviously, this is a very, very tough situation that we as players are in, and it’s not something that we want to be public about, you know? But at the end of the day, I think that we all stand united as a team,” Lloyd said.