Megan Rapinoe And Alex Morgan Confirm US Women’s Team Will Appeal Against Equal Pay Defeat

Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan have revealed the women's national team will launch an appeal against United States Soccer Federation after their equal pay claim was dismissed.

The women's team, who won their fourth World Cup title last summer, demanded over $66m in damages under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But the players were dealt a major blow last week after US District Judge R Gary Klausner threw out the allegations and ruled they weren't underpaid compared with the men's team.

Both Rapinoe and Morgan took to Twitter and expressed their disappointment at the news, but they vowed that they would continue to fight on for equal pay.

Speaking on Good Morning America, Orlando Pride striker Morgan confirmed that the US national team "will definitely be appealing" against the verdict.

The 30-year-old US co-captain, who is 41 weeks pregnant, explained: "We were just shocked -- we will definitely be appealing.

"This decision was out of leftfield for us. I think for both sides it was very unexpected.

"If anyone knows anything about the heart of this team, we are fighters and we will continue to fight together for this."

The US players' allegations of discriminatory working conditions against USSF will proceed to trial, despite the equal pay claim being rejected.

The US court said in its judgement: "The WNT [women's national team] has been paid more on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis than the MNT [men's national team] over the class period."

But US co-captain Rapinoe, who has been vocal in her fight on equal pay, questioned the simple logic behind the court's summary.

The 34-year-old Ballon d'Or winner said: "If I earn one dollar every time I play and a man earns three dollars, just because I win 10 games and he only wins three games -- and so I make 10 dollars and he made nine dollars -- I'm not sure how that's me making more money."

The US men's team released a statement on Monday and reiterated that it would support the women in their battle for equal pay.

"The USMNT players continue to stand with the WNT players in their efforts to secure equal pay," reads the statement.

"For a year and a half, the USMNT players have made proposals to the Federation that would achieve equal pay for the USMNT and USWNT players."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, Football, Alex Morgan, USA, Megan Rapinoe, US

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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