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CANBERRA, Nov. 5-- The women's football team of Australia will be guaranteed equal pay with the Socceroos for the first time under a reportedly world-first agreement to treat the two national teams equally. According to the report of The Australian on Tuesday, the pool of money for payments to both the male and female senior national teams will be identical, and all commercial revenues associated with both teams will be split 50-50 between them. Historically, the Socceroos, like most men's national teams in the world, have been allocated a greater share of commercial revenues and been paid more to play compared to the Matildas (nickname of the women's national team of Australia). Some teams in the world have asked their own football associations for greater parity, with the US women's national team, the world champion, filing a law suit against the US Soccer Federation alleging "institutionalised gender discrimination" over pay and bonuses in March this year. It's hoped that the deal in Australia will be completed in time to be announced before the Matildas face Chile at home for a double-header of friendlies in this month ahead of the Olympic qualifying tournament in February next year. "Obviously it's a welcome investment into women's football and we're really excited about it," Matildas captain Sam Kerr told Channel Seven. "It hasn't been finalized so hopefully we can get the deal over the edge, but yeah, it's exciting." | 
