Timeline set for U.S. women’s soccer lawsuit

Most of the American soccer establishment is focused on Friday's FIFA presidential election at the moment. The judge presiding over the U.S. Soccer Federation's legal action against the women's national team players' union, however, is dealing with domestic affairs.

The next official hearing in the case is a status conference set for March 3. Ahead of that conference, the two sides agreed on a joint status report laying out where things currently stand. The report was posted to the court docket on Wednesday. It includes this timeline for both sides to submit various filings:

March 1 to 31: Parties to complete discovery regarding motions for summary judgment.
April 12: Deadline for both parties to file motions for summary judgment.
May 3: Oppositions to motions for summary judgment due.
May 12: Replies in support of motions for summary judgment due.
May 24: Oral argument on motions for summary judgment, should the Court desire to hear argument.

This means that there will not be a resolution of the case before the much-anticipated "SheBelieves Cup" series of friendly matches in March, nor the two-game series against Colombia in April that includes a contest at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester.

Indeed, from all appearances, the case will not be resolved until late May at the earliest. So there will be no official ruling on whether the U.S. women can strike until that time.

Whether that means there won't be a work stoppage is a different matter. Players union attorney Rich Nichols told Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl earlier this month that the team would not strike before the Olympic qualifying tournament, which concluded on February 21.

But the national team's busy schedule in the weeks to come isn't lost on anyone, nor is the kickoff of the National Women's Soccer League season on April 16.

The report also included the following language on what further documents the two sides may attempt to include as evidence in the case:

Contemporaneously with the filing of the Complaint, US Soccer produced to the Players Association documents it has represented are communications between US Soccer and the Players Association's then-representatives concerning the 2012-2013 negotiations as well as post-MOU communications between the parties. The Players Association will serve document requests on US Soccer seeking for any additional
documents it believes are relevant to this matter and within the permissible scope of discovery.

US Soccer will serve a document request on the Players Association seeking, among other things, documents in the Players Association's possession or control concerning the 2012-2013 negotiations, post-MOU communications between the parties and other documents the Players Association believes are relevant to the dispute between the parties, the allegations and claims set forth in the Complaint or any defenses that the
Players Association intends to assert. 

Finally, US Soccer will serve a document subpoena on Ballard Spahr, LLP, the law firm where the Players Association's former Acting Executive Director and General Counsel was and is a partner, for documents it believes are relevant to this matter and within the permissible scope of discovery.

There will also be witnesses called to give depositions in the case, as the report explained:

The parties have agreed that depositions will take place in the last few weeks of March 2016, subject to the availability of the proposed deponents, after documents have been produced.

US Soccer has identified its representatives who it states were principally involved in the 2012-2013 negotiations and post-MOU communications, and the Players Association intends to take the depositions of these representatives. US Soccer intends to take the deposition of the Players Association's former Acting Executive Director and General Counsel, John Langel of Ballard Spahr LLP.

Langel, as many of you know by now, is the Philadelphia-based attorney who represented the U.S. women's players union from 1998 through 2014.

The status report also noted that "although the parties have engaged in settlement discussions, given the differences between the parties' respective positions, neither US Soccer nor the Players Association believes this case is likely to settle."

You can read the full joint status report here, and read my past coverage of the legal proceedings here.