Do Women Football Deserve Equal Pay?
A common question in football going around since the FIFA 2019 Women’s World Cup is if they deserve the same prize pool as the Men in Football. In Russia, for the 2018 Men’s FIFA World Cup the prize pool was $400 million USD compared to the $30 million USD in France for the 2019 Women’s FIFA World Cup. The USWNT (United States Women National Team) has been fighting to equal the pay of football between genders. But is that really the case? Do they deserve the same prize pool as the men's? Today the question will be answered with a non-biased view and structurally thought out the article to ensure the right information is received. As if I was to grasp this topic with a bias opinion, it could come with negative consequences from the public and I may become an unreliable source as of my reliability off just one article. Anyway, without further ado, let’s get right into it.
With a 61-year gap between the start of both World Cups for each gender starting at 1930 for the men’s and 1991 for the women’s, it is clear to see how much the fanbase has been able to grow with both of them. However, with modern technology and the publicity that comes with it, we can’t really make that into an excuse about why the women’s tournament lacks the revenue from the fans. When in reality, the way the prize pool is made is from the revenue the company of the tournament has made from past tournaments.
Between the genders, there is obviously a prominent skill gap. If we were to compare the best female footballer, Megan Rapinoe from the United States to Phil Foden who hasn’t even won an individual trophy for himself, there is definitely a fine skill gap which makes the fans more entertained into the sport which has more skill in it. Phil Foden is clearly better and people don’t even compare him to the likes of the best like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, the skill gap could also be because of the latency of the female world cup and how there was actually a 61-year-gap between them. Realistically that means there is a 61-year-gap competitive advantage which could be the reason for the skill gap.
Obviously, with come, a skill gap comes competitive entertainment. For example, people would rather watch Justin Beiber at a world-class concert compared to old Jimmy playing the Jambo at your local pub. People are going to pay Justin Beiber and not old Jimmy because they would rather see someone more talented. This is also for football, alot more people would rather watch Kylian Mbappe versus Luka Modric in the 2018 World Cup Final than Alex Morgan versus Lieke Martens in the 2019 World Cup Final.
An influence helps alot with new football players because of inspiration. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have a big platform on social media sites like Instagram which allows young players to strive to become as good as them one day. This allows growth in the population of the sport which leads to more players become professional. More professional footballers mean more prize pool distribution. I am not saying female football players don’t give out an influence to the young female players but I am saying it is extremely less. To give some evidence for this, Ronaldo has 311 million followers on Instagram and Messi has 227 million followers. Ronaldo’s followers are just a bit less than the whole population of the United States of America, which is crazy statistics. Where on the other hand, Alex Morgan only has 9.3 million and Megan Rapinoe has less at 2.2 million.
To conclude this statement, I do think the female prize pool could be rounded to at least $50 million, however, I don’t think that should be taken from the male’s prize pool. The male’s prize pool is fully deserved because of the level of fame they are at. If we let the female prize pool settle for a bit just to get the crowd used to the environment of females playing football, then the popularity of people watching the female World Cup will grow, therefore, leading to a much larger prize pool for the women. I don’t think it should ever be equal just because of the skill gap and reputation of the males, however.
