Football: US women's team threatens to boycott Olympics over equal pay issue

Five players from the US women’s football team are threatening to boycott the Olympic Games in Brazil if their demand for equal pay is not met. Their absence would come as a huge blow to the competition, as the current world champions are tipped to win the gold medal this summer.

France made it to the quarter-finals of the women's world cup last year. The US won the competition by beating Japan 5-2 in the final.

The team's vice-captain Becky Sauerbrunn told ESPN that a boycott would be discussed by the team if the the dispute over equal pay is not settled.

The 30-year-old defender is a member of the USA team that lifted the World Cup in Canada last year and a gold medal-winning veteran of the 2012 Olympics.

"It would still be on the table," she said. "We are reserving every right to do so and we're leaving every avenue open. And if nothing has changed, if we don't feel real progress has been made, then that's a conversation that we're going to have."

Sauerbrunn and five of her team-mates have filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the US Soccer Federation, alleging wage discrimination.

World Cup Most Valuable Player Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Hope Solo and Alex Morgan are the other high-profile signatories to the complaint, which has received support from the rest of the squad.

Sauerbrunn said she hoped the legal action would lead to "equal pay for equal play."

"I think, compensation-wise, respect-wise, that's what I'm really hoping comes out of this complaint," she told ESPN.

"I hope that it puts enough pressure on the federation to show them our worth, our value."

The US women earned 1,7 million euros in prize money for winning last year's World Cup, which the federation distributed to the women and the organization.

The sum pales in comparison with the eight million euros awarded the men’s team after they were knocked out in the round of 16 at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The complaint claims that female players are paid between 3,000 and 4,300 euros per win for the national side, while men receive 5,550 to 15,500 euros for each outing, whether they win, draw or lose.

To make matters worse, the female stars only receive 44 percent of what their male counterparts earn for making the World Cup team.

"The message they've been putting out by paying us drastically less than the men is that they don't value our contributions to the game as much as the men," said Sauerbrunn.

Critics of the complaint claim the disparity is justified by the higher revenue generated by the men’s team.

But equal pay is not the only bone of contention. The US women say they are also discriminated against by being forced to play on poor-quality pitches.

In their "victory tour" following last year’s World Cup, eight out of 10 games took place on artificial turf.

"The men never played in any friendlies on (artificial) turf so why are we playing eight out of 10 on turf when we just won a World Cup?" Sauerbrunn said.

"You'd think they'd want to present us on these beautiful sparkling pitches. It was mind-boggling to me that they would make us play on (artificial) turf on eight out of 10 games in our victory tour."