Equal pay for female footballers?



One day perhaps but this isn't the biggest challenge facing the women's game right now.

We need to grow the popularity of the game - with young girls, with fans, and then the media and commercial interest will follow. We need to ensure that there are widescale opportunities everywhere for young girls to play the game in a safe and enjoyable environment - proper clubs and league structures, qualified and committed coaches etc etc. We need to ensure we have proper governance around the game as it grows - and it make no mistake it's in a period of exceptional growth.

I'm also somewhat bored by men's football frequently being used as a comparator. This isn't about men, and maybe we can do something different, and in many ways something better.
 
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What is really starting to bug me with this promotion of Women's football?

When the media refer to proper football as 'Men's Football'

AGHHHHHHRRRRRR!!!!!

(Same happening in cricket.....yuk!)
 
Football is a business first and foremost.

The best, and most profitable, businesses pay their best staff the best money to keep them and save them going to other businesses.

The woman’s game income isn’t anywhere near as much as the men’s game anyway, if they paid the same wages they’d be bust in weeks.

Absolutely bonkers people suggest they should get paid the same, because like it or not it’s two completely different lines of work.

FIFA is a registered charity though yet still manage to make millions and millions of profit each year. Part of their responsibilities is to raise the awareness and amount of people playing all over the world and for everyone. Making the prize money for the competition equal to the men's would make little difference to their profits and be a big statement of importance for the tournament so why not? I'd rather it went to the teams/FA than stayed with FIFA.
 
Unfortunately the argument against is usually dominated by mysoginists, which dampens the point somewhat, but why should the male game have higher prize money than the female game?

Women's World Cup: Fifa 'entrenched in chauvinism' over prize money, says Hope Solo

Until the standard increases (which it is doing at a rate which is alarming the people who wish to be over protectionist of the mens game,) it is barmy to suggest that female players should receive equal pay, but the argument for equal prize money is surely valid.
When you say 'mysoginists', do you mean 'people who don't agree with me that it should be equal'?
 
Could make an argument at international level for parity but the only way to achieve it would be to have a combined tournament like in Tennis where the income is centralised and prize money can be distributed easily.

Be interesting to know how many people screaming for equal pay actually support the woman’s game? It’s a oversaturated market so asking someone who already goes to live matches regularly then watches league games on tv on a weekend and international/ European games midweek to then start following the woman’s game on top is a big ask.

This for me. I spend enough time and money following SAFC. Work full time. Got a kid. My wife would be livid if I announced I was gonna start watching the lasses games as well
 
One day perhaps but this isn't the biggest challenge facing the women's game right now.

We need to grow the popularity of the game - with young girls, with fans, and then the media and commercial interest will follow. We need to ensure that there are widescale opportunities everywhere for young girls to play the game in a safe and enjoyable environment - proper clubs and league structures, qualified and committed coaches etc etc. We need to ensure we have proper governance around the game as it grows - and it make no mistake it's in a period of exceptional growth.

I'm also somewhat bored by men's football frequently being used as a comparator. This isn't about men, and maybe we can do something different, and in many ways something better.
The quality of the product needs to improve. With this will come growth in popularity.
 
I love how women's football is taking off what's not to like? More good football to watch

However it's a bit like Jake Livermore saying he should be on Messis wages as it's discrimination :lol:

There's less wages as ability levels differ.
 
One day perhaps but this isn't the biggest challenge facing the women's game right now.

We need to grow the popularity of the game - with young girls, with fans, and then the media and commercial interest will follow. We need to ensure that there are widescale opportunities everywhere for young girls to play the game in a safe and enjoyable environment - proper clubs and league structures, qualified and committed coaches etc etc. We need to ensure we have proper governance around the game as it grows - and it make no mistake it's in a period of exceptional growth.

I'm also somewhat bored by men's football frequently being used as a comparator. This isn't about men, and maybe we can do something different, and in many ways something better.

The problem is the top womens teams in club football are attached to the top mens teams. And without the attachment to those men teams would the women game have grown at all..
 
Was thinking about this the other, specifically around Tennis.

The solution, in my opinion, and the best way to have equality is to stop having mens and women football. If a woman is good enough to get into a team she should be paid the same as a man. Likewise if a woman can beat the Wimbledon mens champion she should get the prize money.
 
They're actually already quite fortunate that many football clubs that have made money purely from the men's game are allowing them to operate as part of the club and use the facilities etc. On their own many women's teams couldn't yet exist.

You could argue that a lot of men's professional teams are fortunate to exist given that their clubs make regular losses.
 
The problem is the top womens teams in club football are attached to the top mens teams. And without the attachment to those men teams would the women game have grown at all..
The reality is that often it's only big clubs can put in the needed investment. It costs somewhere between £1m and £3.5m a year to run a WSL team. There's a discussion to be had about whether this is the right direction of travel with pros and cons on both sides. I'm not convinced it's a 'problem' as you describe, although as noted there's pros and cons.
 

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