A major review of women’s football has urged the Football Association to offer the same FA Cup prize money to both genders – funded by the growth in revenues of the men’s competition.
Last season the total prize fund for the women’s FA Cup was just under £3m, a significant increase on the £430,000 of the season before but in stark contrast to the near £20m allocated for male teams in the competition.
The comprehensive 10-month review was led by former England player Karen Carney and the subsequent report, titled “Raising The Bar”, calls for “urgent” changes to domestic women’s football to raise standards and fully professionalise it.
Currently there are 12 professional teams in the Women’s Super League but in the Women’s Championship, the second tier, the 12 teams are a mix of professional and semi-professional.
Players in both leagues who contributed to the report said they felt “like second-class citizens” at their clubs and that often “everything revolves around the schedules of the men’s teams”. Other players reported a lack of parity in access to medical treatment and facilities such as gyms and pools.
Indeed, it is claimed players often have to use the NHS when injured causing longer periods out of the game than their male counterparts and “in some severe cases has forced players into retirement”, the report states. In one case, a player was sidelined for five months with an injury that is commonly treated within four weeks.
The report, launched by former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries following the Lionesses’ momentous Euro 2022 victory, also recommends the gulf in player salaries is addressed. In America there is a “salary floor” – a minimum permitted wages – of around £28,500 per year. In the Women’s Championship players can be paid less than £5,000 per year, according to the report.
“Equalising the prize money in the FA Cup is something the FA is in the position to address, and would send a powerful message on equality,” the report states. “Increases in central revenue would be key in providing some of the smaller women’s clubs with much needed additional resources to address those uplifts to minimum standards this review has recommended.”
It adds: “This review sees an opportunity for the FA to redirect some of its men’s prize pot growth into the women’s prize pot in the form of solidarity funding.
“This offers a route to quicker growth of the women’s prize pot without taking away large chunks of existing prize money from the men’s competition.
“Relatively modest increases in distributable income will allow some Women’s Championship clubs to embrace minimum standards uplifts without facing existential risk.”
Carney hopes raising and eventually equalising the prize pool for the FA Cup can help fund the professionalisation of domestic women’s football and turn it into what she believes “could be a billion pound industry” in 10 years’ time.
Asked if she expected to receive criticism for the idea, Carney replied: “I’d hope there wouldn’t be a backlash. There’s so many issues where women’s football and women’s sport has struggled for so long I’d like to think there’d be an understanding. When you put out a review there’s always going to be someone who challenges you.”
In the men’s game, clubs further down the pyramid sometimes rely on FA Cup revenues as vital cash injections to continue operating.
“I could’ve made a real headline and gone: equalise prize money right now but that would’ve taken down the pyramid of men’s football in terms of the FA Cup prize money, but I haven’t,” Carney said. “We absolutely should be going for equal prize money from the FA and they should be putting a time stamp on that but it can’t be done right now.”
The report highlights the example of tennis, where equal prize money is awarded to men and women in the four grand slam and the Women’s Tennis Association has pledged that prize money will be equalised between genders in other tournaments by 2027.
Carney added: “Sponsorship, broadcasting, clubs, FA, everyone involved has to have that responsibility to invest in the game and move it to the next level.
“There’s always hesitancy when you say it’s going to take a lot of money and investment. What I would say is women’s football is a start-up business. If you’re starting something up you have to have an influx of money.”
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