"I don't think it's fair that we give money to the women's game just because we give money to the women's game. I think they have to earn it." That's John Terry, speaking on Sports Uncensored on July 10th, wading into one of American soccer's most loaded financial debates.
The context: under the U.S. Soccer equal pay collective bargaining agreement, the USMNT and USWNT split pooled FIFA earnings 50-50, with 20% staying with the federation. When the USMNT went out to Belgium at the World Cup, they earned roughly $16 million for reaching the knockout stage. After the federation's cut and the agreed split, each team received $6.4 million — $246,153.85 per player.
The USWNT didn't play in that tournament. They collected that money based on the men's run. Terry's issue is exactly that.
The gap in FIFA prize money is real and it's not close
Here's where the numbers actually support his frustration. The USWNT received $1.87 million for a Round of 16 exit at the 2023 Women's World Cup. Their combined FIFA prize money for winning the 2015 and 2019 tournaments was $6 million total — less than a single knockout-stage men's run generates in one cycle. FIFA's own prize pool structure for the women's game is a fraction of what it awards the men, and no collective bargaining agreement changes that upstream reality.
Terry's broader point, though, isn't purely financial cynicism. "The girls would also say this — they want to earn it because they deserve to earn it," he added. That's a different argument to the one his critics will focus on.
He also pointed to Chelsea's women's team moving all fixtures to Stamford Bridge next season as evidence of the commercial infrastructure slowly catching up. Studies project women's football's global fanbase reaching 800 million by 2030. Sponsorship and broadcast deals are growing, but they're nowhere near closing the gap with the men's game in the near term — Terry himself acknowledged it won't reach parity within five years.
What this actually means for the equal pay debate
The U.S. Soccer CBA was landmark legislation in women's sports. But it created a structural oddity: the women's team's FIFA earnings are now partly dependent on how far the men go in a tournament the women don't play in. That's the tension Terry is poking at, even if his framing is blunter than most would choose.
Whether you agree with him or not, the underlying math is hard to dismiss. The USWNT's entire two-tournament-winning prize haul is essentially one men's knockout run. Until FIFA closes that prize money gap at the source, the equal pay conversation in U.S. Soccer will keep running into the same wall.
