Fifa promises to pay female players

Every player at the Women’s World Cup will be guaranteed at least $30,000 (about R570,000) after a ground-breaking move by Fifa to disburse some of the prize money to individuals rather than national federations.

The 23 members of the winning team will take home $270,000 (R5m), part of a $110m (R2bn) total prize pool which is roughly 300% higher than what Fifa offered for the 2019 tournament.

The $30,000 minimum directed prize money is more than twice the average salary of $14,000 (R265,000) for paid players surveyed in Fifa’s 2022 benchmarking report.

In March, Fifa president Gianni Infantino pledged at the Fifa Congress that organisers would direct prize money towards the players, a first for the women’s tournament, which kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.

For the upcoming Women’s World Cup, member associations will also receive increased funding based on performance, with winners taking $4.29m (R81m) home and delegations earning $1.56m (R30m) for participating in the group stage.

The total performance-based prize funds still significantly trail what was on offer at the men’s tournament last year, where $440m (R8.3bn) total prize fund was awarded.

Fifa has made it clear to national federations that it expects that the amount retained by member associations will be reinvested in their footballing activities, including coaching staff, grassroots projects, youth national teams and women’s football capacity-building programmes.

The global soccer players union, Fifpro, said the news “represents not only the outcome of tremendous global collective action by 150 national team players ... but a constructive negotiation with Fifa over the past months.

“They have listened to the voice of the players and we have taken steps towards greater gender equity in our game at the highest levels,” Fifpro said in a statement. —