FIFA approves prize money increase for 2019 Women's World Cup News

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FIFA approves prize money increase for 2019 Women's World Cup

By Daily Sports on October 28, 2018

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.”

Players’ unions in Australia, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand had written to world soccer’s governing body to protest that even with women’s prize money being doubled, the rewards in the men’s game still dwarf the new amounts. (ESPN)

•Photo shows FIFA President, Gianni Infantino

Source Daily Sports

Posted October 28, 2018