USWNT

United States President Donald Trump has said he will not watch National Football League or U.S. soccer team matches if players do not stand for the national anthem.

The U.S. Soccer Federation last week said it had dropped its requirement that players stand during the anthem, saying the policy was wrong and detracted from the Black Lives Matter movement.

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) announced he is drafting legislation to force U.S. Soccer players to stand for the national anthem or “face financial repercussions.”

A day after the U.S. Soccer announced that it had overturned its ban on protests during the national anthem, federation president Cindy Parlow Cone apologized to women's national team star Megan Rapinoe for the policy being instituted originally.

U.S. Soccer added the rule to its bylaws in 2017 after Rapinoe began kneeling for the anthem to protest racism and police abuses. Rapinoe was following the lead of then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began the same protests in 2016 and hasn't played in the NFL since that year.

Four years later, U.S. Soccer admitted it was wrong and said it’s sorry.

The U.S. Soccer Federation released a statement on Wednesday evening saying its board of directors had voted to repeal Policy 604-1, which was put in place to prevent national team players from kneeling during the national anthem before a match. 

The U.S. Soccer Board of Directors voted yesterday to repeal Policy 604-1, which required our players to stand during the national anthem.

With the United States Soccer Federation debating whether to repeal its rule requiring players to stand for the nation anthem, Major League Soccer reconfirmed Tuesday that it does not prevent anyone from kneeling in protest.

The USSF's board of directors held a special meeting Tuesday to discuss its anthem policy but did not take immediate action, according to the New York Times. Per the report, no decision is likely to come before the board has a regularly scheduled meeting on Friday.

The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) has begun to consider repealing its ban on players kneeling during the national anthem. The board of directors plans to meet on Tuesday, June 9 to discuss the policy.

This comes in the wake of outrage and resulting protests over the murder of George Floyd while in police custody. Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against police brutality have sprung up across the nation and are now drawing global attention.

Professional team sports return to America beginning Saturday, June 27 with the start of the NWSL’s Challenge Cup in Herriman, Utah. The NWSL Challenge Cup schedule was unveiled Monday, and the tournament will feature 25 extremely meaningful matches over the course of a month.

Things begin with an 18-game preliminary round that takes place between June 27 and July 13. Each of the league’s nine teams will play four games and those results will be used to determine the seedings in the quarterfinal knockout round with the last-place squad being eliminated.

The hosts for the 2020 ESPYs have been announced. This year, the ESPYs will shift its focus from outstanding athletic achievement to highlighting the impact athletes have made outside of sports. This shift in showing the world that there's more to athletes than just their performances on the field or court aligns with the current global situation we are in. While sports took a halt, many athletes did not.

Seattle Storm point guard Sue Bird, USWNT standout Megan Rapinoe and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson will be the voice of this years ESPYs.