Women’s Football World Cup Awards: this is the huge salary gap in football
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Although the prize for the winning team of the women's World Cup will increase by more than 200%, this figure is still far from the prize given in the Men's World Cup
$ 30 million dollars will be the total that FIFA will award to the participating teams of the women's tournament in France. The winning team will take $ 4 million, a figure that although it doubles the amount of money given in the last tournament, it is still ten times lower than the total figure awarded in the last men's soccer world cup, $ 400 million, where $ 38 went to the winning team. In addition to the prize money, FIFA gives each team a figure for club preparation and compensation costs. For the women's teams of this world cup, the figure was $ 800,000, while for the men's teams of the last world cup it was $ 1.5 million.
Leer en español: Premios del Mundial de Fútbol Femenino: esta es la enorme brecha salarial en el fútbol
A 'long way' to parity
This has caused the situation to be questioned and to talk about the undeniable existence of the gender gap that exists in the world of sports. The winner of the World Cup Hope Solo told the BBC that "machismo is rooted in FIFA and that these disparities are a reflection of that." Likewise, the wage gap in the world of football is abysmal. The Norwegian player Ada Hegerberg, currently the best player in the world, earns approximately 400,000 euros a year, while her male counterpart, Lionel Messi, earns about three hundred times more.
Hagerberg announced that she will not participate in this World Cup. The winner of the Golden Ball decided to give up international football in 2017 due to the way in which the Norwegian Football Federation treated the players, and although the federation later agreed to pay the male and female players the same amount of money Hagerberg has not made herself available for the 2019 tournament and states that "there is still a long way to go."
Beyond the World
In the Champions League, another great tournament recognized worldwide, there is also a considerable difference between the money invested in the men's and women's tournament. In the women's Champions, the prizes reach a total of 330,000 euros, while in the men's competition each group that reaches the group stage receives 15.25 million, and for each victory in that instance, 2.7 million. The draw is rewarded with 900,000 euros, almost three times more than women receive for winning the tournament.
But gender inequality in sports is something that goes beyond institutions. Although women's football has experienced exponential growth in recent years, it is not yet a mass sport and that causes it to generate less television and advertising investments. Football is still considered by many as a men's sport, which means that women's football is minimized and that players are not recognized or are often not taken seriously.
Read also: The richest women according to Forbes: a controversial list
A sample of this is what happened to Hagerberg during the Golden Ball award ceremony when the Swedish DJ Martin Solveig asked her if she knew how to do a 'twerking' dance. The event was instantly virtualized by all social networks and the impact was so great that Solveig had to apologize. "He could have asked me about some football thing," said the player about it.
What is being done to fight against gender inequality in football?
Women's teams around the world have expressed their rejection of inequality and have carried out different actions to make the problem visible. In the United States, the team has taken legal action against the national soccer association for equal pay issues, the Australian players' union has asked FIFA to reward male and female players alike, and a Nigerian team organized a protest in a hotel in 2016 for outstanding payments, after winning the Women's Africa Cup of Nations.
For its part, FIFA has declared that it is making significant progress in encouraging the participation and development of women's teams. Sarai Bareman, Director of Women's Football of the organization, affirms that the prize money "is only a small part of the investments that FIFA is making for the development of women's football around the world" and assures that during the next three years FIFA plans to invest between $ 400m and $ 500m exclusively in that development plan.
LatinAmerican Post | María Fernanda Barinas Ortiz
Translated "Premios del Mundial de Fútbol Femenino: esta es la enorme brecha salarial en el fútbol"
