Why female players' fight with U.S. Soccer for equal pay is 'much bigger than sports'

They won Olympic gold, they won the World Cup, they won the attention and adulation of their nation, and now they want something else they feel they've earned: equal treatment and equal pay.

Five members of the U.S. women's national soccer team have filed a federal complaint charging U.S. Soccer with wage discrimination. The complaint, first reported by The New York Times on Thursday, argues that the women's team is more of an economic lift for U.S. Soccer, and yet it is still paid less.

"We're on the right side of history," defender Becky Sauerbrunn said on a teleconference Thursday morning. "U.S. Soccer has no justification to pay us what they do."

"While we have not seen this complaint and can't comment on the specifics of it," U.S. Soccer said in a statement, "we are disappointed about this action. We have been a world leader in women's soccer and are proud of the commitment we have made to building the women's game in the United States over the past 30 years."

The players say that although five of them are named – Sauerbrunn, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe and Hope Solo – they have the full support of the entire team.

The five are represented by attorney Jeffrey Kessler – who has served as counsel to the NFL Players Association and National Basketball Players Association and previously had Tom Brady as a client in the deflate-gate case – and their complaint was submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination.

Asked if the players had ever considered a work stoppage of some sort, Solo said "all options are available to us," and players are "prepared to take any action."

On the teleconference, the players and Kessler spoke of larger societal forces at play, perhaps a reflection of the recent international debate over equal pay in tennis. Solo said the players "look to women in all walks of life," including Hollywood. Kessler said this is "much bigger than sports."

Although FIFA pays out far more to men's teams than the women, that doesn't mean the numbers are kind to U.S. Soccer. While the men are paid $5,000 for a loss, the women's team members receive $1,350 only if they win. The men's World Cup championship bonus was set at $9.3 million, according to the New York Daily News, while the women's bonus – which they collected – was $1.8 million. This is despite at least one projection that the women are set to bring in more revenue in fiscal year 2017 than the men. The women's national team's championship game last summer was the most watched in U.S. Soccer history. Kessler said the women were "justified to ask for more" than the men, but equal pay was an "easy step" for U.S. Soccer.

Although pay is a primary concern, this is clearly about more than that. Players on the call mentioned coverage of women's sports on ESPN, which Solo said was disproportionately low compared to the amount of women athletes in the U.S. There have also been issues with hotel accommodations. And there is the lingering concern over artificial turf, which was used in the Women's World Cup last summer even though the men have never had to play on the surface in World Cup play.

The complaint not only puts pressure on U.S. Soccer, it also will add a spotlight to the men's team, which has accomplished little on the world stage, relative to the women. There will be questions for the men about whether they deserve to be paid more than the women, and whether they support the women's push for better pay. When asked about feedback from the men's players on this movement, Alex Morgan said, "We'll get back to you."

"We are the best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships and the USMNT get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships," Solo said in a statement.

That discrepancy is likely to widen over the coming months, as the women's team is favored to repeat as Olympic champions in Rio. That may lead to another opportunity for revenue in the form of a victory tour in the latter part of this year and into 2017.

U.S. Soccer is expected to fight back by pointing to collective bargaining, which the women's players agreed to. Although that's certainly a valid retort, the soccer world has clearly changed over the past year. The women's squad is every bit the "America's Team" as the men's side, perhaps more so. And at the very least, the women are refusing to keep quiet over what they feel is prolonged injustice.

These are members of the Title IX generation, and they are not simply happy to be here.