United States president Donald Trump has weighed in on the debate surrounding the gender pay gap in football.
In March, 28 members of the U.S. women’s national team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against US Soccer , citing gaps in pay and resources.
The suit is being led by current stars Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn, alleging that U.S. Soccer “paid only lip service to gender equality and continues to practice gender-based discrimination against its champion female employees.”
This week, an entity of the United Nations used Lionel Messi’s salary to highlight the difference in salaries between the sexes .
The Barcelona star makes $84 million per year from his salary, bonuses and commercial deals, which is almost double the combined annual income of the 1,693 female footballers in the top seven leagues, which adds up to $42.6m.
“During the Women’s World Cup 2019, join UN Women in demanding equal pay for women in sport,” UN Women said in their message.
Trump was asked about the issue this week, but he suggested he did not have enough knowledge of the finer details of the issue to take a position.
“I love watching women’s soccer,” he told The Hill . “They’re really talented.
“I think a lot of it also has to do with the economics. I mean who draws more, where is the money coming in.
“I know that when you have the great stars like [Portugal‘s Cristiano] Ronaldo and some of these stars … that get paid a lot of money, but they draw hundreds of thousands of people.
“But I haven’t taken a position on that at all. I’d have to look at it.”
The USWNT will face tournament hosts France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup after beating Spain 2-1 in the last 16 of the competition on Monday thanks to two penalties by Rapinoe.
France, meanwhile, got the better of Brazil in their first knockout match, winning 2-1 in extra-time.
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