Legendary goalie Hope Solo calls the US women's soccer team's equal-pay settlement 'heartbreaking and infuriating'

• The US women's national soccer team reached a settlement in its long-standing equal-pay lawsuit.
• USSF agreed to give players $22 million in back pay and committed to equal pay going forward.

Players of the US women's national team settled their long-standing equal-pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation on Tuesday.

The agreement was lauded by players, fans, and the media alike, but one former superstar was less than satisfied with the end of the years-long litigation.

Hope Solo, the legendary USWNT goalkeeper, criticized the players' $22 million settlement with USSF in a lengthy, strongly worded statement posted to Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2015 World Cup champion questioned whether Tuesday's deal had truly guaranteed equal pay for the women's team and criticized some of her former teammates in the process.

"This settlement is not a 'huge win,'" Solo wrote. "It's heartbreaking and infuriating."

The four-time IFFHS Goalkeeper of the Year expressed skepticism regarding US Soccer's pledge to provide identical compensation to the men's and women's national teams going forward. The settlement announced on Tuesday wouldn't be ratified until both sides reached terms on the USWNT's upcoming collective-bargaining agreement, in which US Soccer said it would commit "to providing an equal rate of pay going forward for the Women's and Men's National Teams in all friendlies and tournaments, including the World Cup."

Tuesday's joint release from the players and federation said the details about equal pay would "be established by the new CBA between US Soccer and the USWNT." But Solo argued that until the CBA was ratified, US Soccer's "promise" meant nothing.

"A 'promise' of equal pay from the Federation and backpay for a select group of players isn't equal pay and it's not what this fight was about," Solo wrote. "Read the fine print. 'Contingent upon the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement.' It doesn't exist yet and isn't guaranteed."

"If the players had ever been successful in negotiating an equal CBA, there would've been no reason to sue the Federation in the first place," she added.

Solo also criticized former USWNT teammates Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe — who have been the faces of the players' fight for equal pay — by name. She said the pair of strikers had long been "the two most agreeable with USSF and to this day, continue to accept terms that are nowhere near what we set out to do."

"They both know this is not a win," Solo said, referring to Morgan and Rapinoe. "They know it's an easy out of a fight they were never really in."

Solo added that the deal "guarantees nothing to the next generation" of USWNT stars, and that those players "who set this fight in motion will not benefit from the selfishness and inequality of this settlement."

At present, the players and federation are operating under a memorandum of understanding, which extends the players' previous CBA through the end of March. US Soccer and the USWNT players have until then to reach terms on the new agreement and solidify Tuesday's settlement.

"Are we close? It depends on your definition of close," Cindy Parlow Cone, USSF's president and a former USWNT player, said of CBA negotiations on a media call on Tuesday. "Are we going in the right direction? Yes."

She added that "equalizing" FIFA prize money — essential to guaranteeing equal pay for the men's and women's teams — was a "sticking point" in negotiations.

Check out Solo's full statement below.

—Hope Solo (@hopesolo) February 23, 2022

—Hope Solo (@hopesolo) February 23, 2022

—Hope Solo (@hopesolo) February 23, 2022

—Hope Solo (@hopesolo) February 23, 2022