US star Megan Rapinoe gave soccer bosses some kicks two weeks ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, saying that the sport’s top executives are not doing enough to close a huge gender disparity in investment.
“They have essentially unlimited resources. I don’t think that it’s really been a huge change at all,” the 33-year-old Californian said on Friday, two days ahead of her team’s send-off match against Mexico. “Sort of the incremental change that we’ve seen is just not enough.”
A champion at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2015 World Cup, the Seattle Reign midfielder has been the most outspoken US player.
Photo: AP
FIFA doubled prize money for this year’s tournament to US$30 million from four years ago and the amount for the winning team to US$4 million. That remains a fraction of the money at last year’s FIFA World Cup, where France received US$38 million from a US$400 million pool. FIFA has raised the men’s pool to US$440 million for 2022.
“I would like to see a major paradigm shift and sort of a major overhaul,” Rapinoe said. “There’s been such a lack of investment for all of these years and such a lack of care and attention that doubling or tripling or quadrupling investment, care, attention to the women’s game I think would be appropriate.”
FIFA pointed to the increase in resources devoted to women since Gianni Infantino became FIFA’s president in 2016, including the hiring of Fatma Samoura as secretary-general, the first woman to hold the post; the addition of Sarai Bareman as FIFA’s first chief women’s soccer officer and the establishment of a FIFA’s women’s division; and using video assistant referees at the Women’s World Cup following the introduction of VAR at last year’s men’s World Cup.
FIFA said its staff at the World Cup would include 214 women and 218 men.
In addition to the boost in prize money, FIFA added US$11.5 million for teams’ preparations for the Women’s World Cup and US$8.5 million for club benefits, raising spending to US$50 million. FIFA spent US$48 million for teams’ preparations at last year’s men’s World Cup and US$209 million for club benefits, so by that metric the disparity is US$657 million to US$50 million.
Rapinoe also criticized FIFA for allowing three major finals to take place on the same day, splitting focus that could otherwise be solely on the women. The women’s final in Lyon, France, is to kick off five hours before the Copa America championship match in Rio de Janeiro, with the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in Chicago eight hours later.
“It’s ridiculous and disappointing, to be honest,” Rapinoe said.
FIFA said playing the three finals on the same day would boost attention for all.
“The scheduling of the different events has gone through a comprehensive consultancy process, which has involved all key stakeholders and taken into account different aspects of the women’s and men’s international match calendars,” it said in a statement. “It is a rare and exciting occurrence.”
Players on the US team in March sued the US Soccer Federation, accusing it of institutionalized gender discrimination.
The federation said that pay and benefits for members of the men’s and women’s teams, bargained by separate unions, cannot be compared and said there was no basis for allegations of illegal conduct.
“It’s not this divide. It’s very much a cohesive unit,” US coach Jill Ellis said. “It doesn’t enter the locker room. It doesn’t enter the meeting space. We’re working together and making this work and, yeah, I understand. I’m a woman. I have a young daughter. I understand a lot of the bigger social issues out there in terms of that, but I also know right now the job is to get the team focused and they are focused.”
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