Women’s World Cup prize money still one-third of men’s after 300% increase
The total prize money for this summer’s Women’s World Cup will jump to more than $150 million — a figure that’s still far below the $440 million men received for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Why it matters: The increased pool, announced by FIFA on Thursday, is more than three times higher than the 2019 women’s tournament and 10 times higher than the 2015 tournament.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the organization’s “ambition” is to have full parity between men’s and women’s prize money for the 2026 and 2027 World Cups.
Zoom in: The $150 million fund from FIFA will go toward prize money for teams, team preparation and payments to club benefits, ESPN reports.
Some of the prize money should be used to pay players, Infantino said.
“Women deserve much, much more than that and we are there to fight for them and with them,” he said.
Infantino also encouraged broadcasters to pay more for the rights to air the upcoming Women’s World Cup.
Between the lines: Pay disparity between men and women in soccer has been an ongoing issue in recent years. The United States, Canada, France and Spain have all campaigned for equal pay with the men’s soccer teams.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team settled a gender-based pay discrimination lawsuit with the US Soccer Federation for $24 million in February 2022.
The federation announced last May that it will ensure equal pay for all competitions through collective bargaining agreements with both teams.
Under the agreement, the FIFA prize money from the men’s and women’s World Cup matches will be pooled and then divided equally between the members of both teams.
