The U.S. Soccer Federation reached milestone agreements to pay its mens and womens teams equally, making the American national governing body the first in the sport to promise both sexes matching money.

The federation announced separate collective bargaining agreements through December 2028 with the unions for both national teams on Wednesday, ending years of often acrimonious negotiations.

The men have been playing under the terms of a CBA that expired in December 2018 . The womens CBA expired at the end of March but talks continued after the federation and the players agreed to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by some of the players in 2019. The settlement was contingent on the federation reaching labor contracts that equalized pay and bonuses between the two teams.

I feel a lot of pride for the girls who are going to see this growing up, and recognize their value rather than having to fight for it. However, my dad always told me that you dont get rewarded for doing what youre supposed to do and paying men and women equally is what youre supposed to do, U.S. forward Margaret Purce said. So Im not giving out any gold stars, but Im grateful for this accomplishment and for all the people who came together to make it so.

Perhaps the biggest sticking point was World Cup prize money, which is based on how far a team advances in the tournament. While the U.S. women have been successful on the international stage with back-to-back World Cup titles , differences in FIFA prize money meant they took home far less than the mens winners.

The unions agreed to pool FIFAs payments for the mens World Cup later this year and next years Womens World Cup, as well as for the 2026 and 2027 tournaments.

Each player will get matching game appearance fees in what the USSF said makes it the first federation to pool FIFA prize money in this manner.

We saw it as an opportunity, an opportunity to be leaders in this front and join in with the womens side and U.S. Soccer. So were just excited that this is how we were able to get the deal done, said Walker Zimmerman, a defender who is part of the U.S. National Team Players Association leadership group.

The federation previously based bonuses on payments from FIFA, which earmarked $400 million for the 2018 mens tournament, including $38 million to champion France , and $30 million for the 2019 womens tournament, including $4 million to the champion United States .

FIFA has increased the total to $440 million for the 2022 mens World Cup , and its president, Gianni Infantino, has proposed that FIFA double the womens prize money to $60 million for the 2023 Womens World Cup, in which FIFA has increased the teams to 32.