The 2023 Women’s World Cup tournament begins this week with great fanfare and broadcast revenue estimated at almost 200 million dollars. It’s great news for the sport’s global governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), but not so good for the players on the field.
As the flagship event of women’s sport, the Women’s World Cup is an important time to reflect on how, in many countries, women and girls must fight just to get onto the playing field .And once they do, they face threats and reprisalsunfair salary, harassmentAnd sexual assault.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, whose base salary and bonuses is $3.9 million, promised in June that every player in the tournament would receive at least $30,000 – implicitly recognizing the past Women’s World Cup. wage theft.
But now Infantino is deny even on this poor guarantee, telling the press conference In opening matches, it would be up to national football federations to determine how and whether to pay players.
This is shocking but hardly surprising given FIFA’s dismal record of failing to protect women and girls in the sport. Far from equalizing tournament prizes as has happened in sport like tennisFIFA fails on payroll issues and even in the basic workplace systems to protect players from sexual and other abuse.
There is a lot of money to ensure a decent salary for the players. With FIFA’s $4 billion in reserves and forecasts 11 billion dollars In terms of revenue during the 2026 World Cup cycle, only gender discrimination is stopping FIFA from leveling the playing field when it comes to pay at the Women’s World Cup.
The total amount of prizes awarded by FIFA for the 2019 Women’s World Cup, which reached 1.12 billion viewers around the world and broke audience records in the United States with 25.4 million viewers…was $30 million. After significant global pressureThis year’s prize pool will increase to $110 million, still well below the $400 million for the 2018 Men’s World Cup or the $440 million awarded during the 2022 Men’s World Cup.
FIFA finances each national team with an average of $1.5 million per year. Unfortunately, this money intended to develop women’s sport is too often siphoned off by national federations before reaching the players who have earned it.
FIFA could, but it is not using its influence as the sport’s main funder to ensure that every national federation treats female athletes fairly. Women’s national team players tell Human Rights Watch that these funds rather fuel corruption and the worst sexual abuse.
An important recent FIFPRO studythe global union of professional footballers, exposed that 29 percent of responding players said they had not received any payment from their national team for World Cup qualifying tournaments.
The mothers of the Jamaican women’s national team players had to create a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs of participating in the Women’s World Cup. Reggae Girlz players Cheyna Matthews and Khadija “Bunny” Shaw job their “biggest disappointment with the Jamaica Football Federation” regarding “poor planning, transportation, accommodation, training conditions, remuneration, communication, nutrition and resources”.
“We showed up on several occasions without receiving the contractually agreed compensation,” the Jamaican players wrote.
Nigeria’s women’s national team, the Super Falcons, have released wage theft for years and threatened to boycott his first World Cup match.
In South Africa, the Banyana Banyana national players are paid a tenth of what men do. Making their anger known at the South African Football Association over salaries, preparation and training, the entire team withdrew in protest against the last preparation match before the Women’s World Cup.
In total, 150 best players of the national team signed a letter to FIFA demanding equal pay and tournament conditions.
It is false that female footballers who have reached the pinnacle of their sport cannot count on FIFA to guarantee the salaries they have earned, and it highlights the corruption of governance and lack of oversight of human rights. man who are also at the origin of this situation. many other abuses against women and girls in the sport.
Australia is co-hosting this year’s tournament with neighboring New Zealand. Members of the Matildas, the Australian women’s national football team, responded to this structural inequality by attacking FIFA in a forceful speech. video condemning the discriminatory gender pay gap around the world.
“Even though prize money has increased, it is still only 25 per cent of what the men receive,” said the co-chief executive of Professional Footballers Australia and former best striker Kate Gill told the Australian Associated Press. In 2015, the Matildas we had to strike to demand equal pay and prize money for tournaments like Australia’s men’s national team, the Socceroos. Since 2019, a collective agreement has guaranteed equal pay for Australian national teams.
So far, seven women’s national teams fought and won some version of pay equity. But for most of the 736 women making up the 32 competing teams, daily working conditions remain far from the same as those of the men’s national teams.
FIFA has the funds to implement pay equity, but no political will. On the other hand, in tennis, the players fought and won equal pay at the US Open in 1973– half a century ago.
This Women’s World Cup will certainly highlight incredible women’s sporting performances. Perhaps more importantly, it also highlights the urgent need to end FIFA’s dysfunction in deceiving and abusing the players who organize its tournaments.
