Female Soccer Players Earn 25 Cents to the Dollar of Men at the World Cup
Originally published by Issy Ronald, Antonio Jarne, & Krystina Shveda for CNN
Soccer players at the 2023 Women’s World Cup will on average earn just 25 cents for every dollar earned by men at their World Cup last year, a new CNN analysis found.
Still, that is an improvement: last time, in 2019, it was less than eight cents per dollar, according to data provided by world governing body FIFA and global players’ union FIFPRO.
The gender pay gap will be very much alive and kicking at a tournament which begins on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
FIFA announced in June that, for the first time, about $49 million of the record $110 million Women’s World Cup prize money would go directly to individual players — at least $30,000 each for participating and $270,000 to each player on the winning squad.
The rest of the pot is going to be split between participating federations who will decide what share of this money to allocate to teams and players – if any at all. In addition to prize money, FIFA committed to paying $42 million to the federations and players’ clubs for Women’s World Cup preparations.
When asked for comment, soccer’s world governing body referred CNN to what FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in March when the organization announced details of the prize money on offer at this year’s tournament.
At the time, he said FIFA was embarking on a “historic journey for women’s football and for equality,” adding that the aim was equality in payments for the men’s and women’s World Cups in 2026 and 2027 respectively.