The Women’s National Soccer Team Loses Momentum in their Lawsuit while the United States Soccer Federation Experiences a Massive Overall

The first half of 2020 brought significant change to all U.S. soccer constituents. The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) was forced to take drastic measures in the face of difficult circumstances, such as dissolving its Development Academy and nominating an interim president, while the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (WNT) lost significant leverage in its gender discrimination lawsuit after a judge granted many of the USSF’s summary judgment requests. Although the lasting effect of these events remains to be seen, the hope is that soccer in the U.S. will be rebuilt post-pandemic and post-litigation stronger than before.

U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Suffers Significant Loss Prior to Court Date

On 9 March 2020, both the USSF and the WNT filed oppositions to the other side’s motion for summary judgment as part of the WNT’s gender discrimination lawsuit initiated last year.[1] Although these submissions were supposed to be uneventful formalities, the USSF’s filing created an unwanted firestorm, with many getting burned in the aftermath.

Seyfarth Shaw LLP, the USSF’s outside counsel for the case, highlighted in the USSF’s opposition submission the inapplicability and shortcomings of the WNT’s summary judgment arguments and continued to reemphasize many of the arguments it made back in February 2020. Unfortunately, one of its...

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