FIFA doubles prize money for Women's World Cup, but men still earn way more

FIFA will raise the prize money for the Women’s World Cup from $15 million to $30 million starting with next year’s edition in France, president Gianni Infantino announced on Friday, though critics immediately said the increase was not enough.

Following a FIFA council meeting in Rwanda, the Swiss-Italian also said that $20 million would be made available for pre-tournament preparations, meaning that $50 million in total would be allocated across the 24 participating nations.

The prize money is double the amount awarded in the 2015 World Cup in Canada and for the first time clubs will be rewarded for their players taking part in the tournament, as is the case in the men’s edition.

“It’s a very important message for women’s football. It will certainly boost this World Cup even more,” Infantino told a news conference.

However, global footballers’ union FIFpro said the changes were not enough to redress the inequality between men’s and women’s football worldwide.

“FIFPro notes the willingness of FIFA to increase prize money for the Women’s World Cup and make structural improvements to support women’s football. However, despite these changes football remains even further from the goal of equality for all World Cup players regardless of gender,” a FIFpro statement said.

“In reality, the changes actually signify an increase in the gap between men’s and women’s prize money. This regressive trend appears to contravene FIFA’s statutory commitment to gender equality.

“We strongly support our members, women’s national-team players in multiple countries, who have written to FIFA in recent days expressing their dismay about the distribution of prize money.”

The total prize money for this year’s men’s World Cup in Russia was $400m, with champions France receiving $38m.