The players of the European Championship favorites Spain and England are already paid the same money for the same hard work as their male counterparts.
Foto: imago/Shutterstock
On the way from the opening game of the 2022 Women’s European Championship in Manchester this Wednesday to the final on July 31, the participating football associations are not only interested in sporting ambitions but also in lucrative prize money. Compared to the last European Championship in 2017, the umbrella organization of European football has doubled the payouts, with Uefa distributing a total of 16 million euros to the associations. All 16 participating teams will receive an entry fee of 600,000 euros. Thanks to various prizes, the winners can even earn a good two million euros for their association – more than ever before at a women’s European Championship tournament.
However, how much of this is passed on to the national players as a performance bonus in the event of a title win varies between the national associations and is currently causing a lot of discussion: while in some countries the women players receive the same payment as their male national team colleagues, elsewhere the women’s bonuses lag far behind those of the men after. The German national teams are also a long way away from “equal pay”, i.e. equal payment for women and men for the same performance: the German players would receive a record bonus of 60,000 euros from the German Football Association if they won the European Championship in England (DFB) received. However, the German men’s team around Manuel Neuer would have gotten a lot more with a title last year with 400,000 euros per player.
“Income and sales are very different in a men’s tournament than in a women’s tournament,” said DFB director Oliver Bierhoff recently, explaining the discrepancy in bonuses for DFB footballers. In fact, the total premium for the 2021 men’s European Championship, at 331 million euros, was significantly higher than the 16 million euros now available for women. In addition, the association does “everything” so that women have the same conditions, says Bierhoff. Bringing training conditions, coaching staff and equipment to a similar level as for men is certainly a step forward. But the players, who often earn only a fraction of the income of the men in the league, cannot use better training balls to build up any reserves for the time after their professional career.
The Swiss Football Association (SFV) recently showed that different incomes at the tournaments do not necessarily have to be an obstacle to the harmonization of pay. Its main sponsor, Credit Suisse, will in future pay the same bonuses to both national teams, thus ensuring greater financial gender equality. The Swiss are no exception: the associations have now adjusted the bonuses for half of all 16 teams at the European Championship.
The debate about »equal pay« was primarily driven by the world champions from the USA. For years they argued in court with their national association about the same payment, but finally an agreement was reached last February: All income from men’s and women’s tournaments will now be added up and distributed equally to the international players. The footballers from Denmark even went on strike in 2017 to get a fairer wage.
The German actors are less demanding than their international colleagues. National player Sara Däbritz said about the negotiated premium for the DFB women: “It’s a significant improvement on the last EM. That’s why we’re on the right track.” The national coach also spoke rather cautiously to “nd”: “You can think about aligning the bonuses for the men’s national teams, women’s and for the U21 at some point,” said Martina Voss-Tecklenburg . The 54-year-old can imagine a reduction in men’s premiums: “It has to be closer: less in men’s football and maybe a little more for us.”
The Norwegian footballers unselfishly demonstrated how this could work back in 2017: They waived money from advertising and marketing so that the association could pay their teammates the same. An approach that the German footballers around Manuel Neuer could also take as an example. The achievements of the DFB women, who are record European champions with eight titles, are at least equal to those of the men. And why should a possible European title for women be worth less than one for men?
Other associations show how it can work. But the DFB, it seems, mainly measures the performance of its teams by the economic revenues they achieve and not by their sporting success. And if Uefa keeps the huge differences in the distributions, it could be difficult with this logic with an early equal payment between men and women in Germany. “The task for Fifa and Uefa is that at some point there will be a bonus system that is the same for everyone,” says national coach Voss-Tecklenburg. A wish that probably still requires patience, since Uefa in turn passes on the responsibility to television stations and sponsors. So if the DFB wants to set an example for equality in football, it shouldn’t wait.
