Just a few weeks ago, the fight seemed to escalate further as lawyers for the US Football Association (USSF) wrote in documents that male national team players need to be faster and stronger and have more responsibilities than women. It was an attempt to motivate why the men's national team players receive more compensation.

The statement received harsh criticism and led to the resignation of USSF chairman Carlos Cordeiro and the vice-president, former national team player Cindy Parlow Cone, took over.

Mild tone

The union replaced the lawyers and in the documents submitted to the court the tone is different.

"The USSF no longer claims that there would be a difference in skills, effort and responsibility between the national teams, which means that they allow players to do an equal job," the players' lawyers write in their petition to the court.

A year ago, 28 national team players filed a lawsuit against the federation for "institutionalized gender discrimination". After the ladies' national championship gold this summer, a mediation attempt was unsuccessful.

Other payment structure

Now the parties have submitted their documents to the court, where negotiations will begin on 5 May. In these documents, the USSF defends the different national team remuneration by playing national teams in different places - in different cities and in different countries - and against different opponents. In addition, they say, there may appear to be differences because the ladies' national team has a different payment structure negotiated by their trade unions.

Parlow Cone hopes that a solution can be reached as early as May 5.

- I don't think a trial is good for any of the parties or for football, neither nationally or internationally. Evidently, our women's team is the best in the world and I think we can find a solution before it becomes trial, she says.