Team USA Forced To Share Half Of World Cup Prize Money With Women’s Team

Adding insult to injury after an embarrassing exit from the World Cup this week, the United States Men’s National Team will be forced to share half of the earnings from their run with their counterparts on the Women’s National Team.

The men’s team secured $16 million in prize money from FIFA after their run to the World Cup’s round of 16. Despite not playing a single minute of soccer, members of the women’s team will take home just as much money as the men’s team thanks to an “equal pay” agreement put in place by U.S. Soccer back in 2022. 

After U.S. Soccer takes 20% of the prize money, the rest will be distributed evenly between the 26 members on each of the rosters of the men’s and the women’s teams, meaning each player will be paid about $246,000. The money won’t be paid out to the women’s team until they qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup. 

“So you’re telling me the men go out and earn while the women stay at home,” Daily Wire host Ben Shapiro said in reaction to the news. 

The “equal pay” agreement was put in place in 2022 after years of complaints by the women’s soccer team, which became known for antics including refusal to respect the National Anthem and stunts targeting President Donald Trump. 

That agreement came after a lawsuit from players on the women’s team alleging pay discrimination by the U.S. Soccer Federation. To settle the suit, U.S. Soccer agreed that prize money from the World Cup would be divided evenly among players on both rosters. 

Historically, the men’s World Cup competition has generated billions of dollars more in revenue than the women’s World Cup. The 2026 World Cup is expected to bring in over $13 billion in revenue, while the last women’s World Cup in 2023 generated roughly $580 million. 

Though the Women’s National Team has had more relative on-the-field success than the men’s team, its on- and off-the-field antics have brought criticism. Several members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team knelt during the national anthem at several matches in 2020 and early 2021, while longtime team captain Megan Rapinoe had previously done so while representing the U.S. in the 2016 Olympics.

In 2019, Megan Rapinoe described herself as a “walking protest when it comes to the Trump administration.”

“So it’s kind of a good ‘F you’ to any sort of inequality or bad sentiments that the [Trump] administration might have towards people who don’t look exactly like him,” she said in one interview.