Despite the historical equal wage agreement between U.S. Soccer and its men’s and women’s teams, the World Cup prize money remains a contentious issue for equality in soccer. Check out the complete details about it below.
Uneven World Cup prize money is a barrier to Equal Pay
Early this year, the U.S. national teams made the decision to divide prize money, which means that the earnings from competing in the sport’s most illustrious competitions will be split equally between players for both teams – after the federation takes a cut off the top.
It was a historic deal that was heralded as a crucial step toward equality outside of athletics. Other countries, however, have not done so.
The large gap in prize money between men’s and women’s tournaments, and how it is ultimately distributed to players by federations, are at the core of the issue.
The prize money for the 2018 men’s World Cup has been set aside by FIFA at $440 million. $42 million will be awarded to the Qatari winner.
2019 Ladies’s World Cup prize pool was $30 million, and the American women took home $4 million. The prize money for the 2023 competition has been suggested to be doubled by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, while the field has grown from 24 to 32 teams.
That may alter. Recently, FIFA Secretary-General Fatma Samoura proposed that the overall prize money for the women’s competition may be higher.
While certain nations, like as Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Norway, and others, have made substantial progress toward equal match and appearance costs, such agreements haven’t included an equal distribution of the combined World Cup prize money.
However, the deal only gives the women a “proportionately similar” sum, or the same percentage, of the World Cup prize money, despite Brazil having declared equal compensation for its men’s and women’s teams in 2020.