| | Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and the rest of the U.S. National Team stars who
won last summer's Women's World Cup will return to the field,
ending their month-long contract dispute with the U.S. Soccer
Federation.
The women, who boycotted this month's Australia Cup because of
complaints over money, will start training Tuesday for next
Sunday's exhibition against Norway at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. It will
be the first game for new coach April Heinrichs.
The USSF did not announce the deal Saturday, however, it did
schedule a news conference for Tuesday in New York to "discuss the
progress of the current contract negotiations."
A source in the USSF, speaking on condition of anonymity, told
The Associated Press on Friday that an agreement had been reached
and was only awaiting signatures.
The federation did announce that it has called in 35 players,
including 17 of the boycotting players from the World Cup team, to
train this week.
The women boycotted the Australia Cup because they said the USSF
wasn't paying them enough. The federation sent a team of
college-age players and won the tournament.
Each player on the roster was paid $3,150 a month during the
World Cup run, although U.S. Soccer spent about $2.5 million in
preparing the team for the tournament. At the end of the hugely
successful tournament last July, the contracts expired.
Although the women, through their lawyer, John Langel, sought a
new contract proposal as early as September, the federation
preferred to begin negotiations on Dec. 1.
When the USSF asked the players to compete under the terms of
the old contract -- but without any bonus money after each received
$7,500 for winning the World Cup -- Langel proposed $5,000 a month
for January and February, plus $2,000 per game.
Several players called the federation's original proposal
"insulting," and Hamm, the sport's career scoring leader, said it
was a step backward.
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