Although they announced that they would increase the value of the women’s FA Cup tenfold, the English Football Association (FA) will come under renewed pressure to match the prize money between groups competing in the men’s and women’s FA Cup after detailing that Lewes FC’s proposals illustrate how this can only be achieved within its existing budget.
Following an FA Board meeting last Thursday, new proposals were agreed to increase the value of the FA Cup women’s festival from £430,000 ($562,068) to £3 million ($3. 9 million) from next season. However, this is still less than a fifth of the total £15. 9 million ($21. 5 million) prize allocated to the men’s FA Cup. This season’s men’s FA Cup winners, sponsored through Emirates Airlines, will win £1. 8 million (£2. 4 million) instead of £25,000 (£33,820) in prizes awarded to the winners of the women’s FA Cup sponsored through Vitality Health.
According to Chris Slegg, co-author of A History of the Women’s FA Cup Final, no cash prizes were awarded in the women’s FA Cup until 1977, when Sponsors Pony awarded £100 ($130) to the Queen’s Park Rangers, that year’s winners. . final. Just seven years ago, the women’s FA Cup winners won just £5000 ($6765) in prizes, which was not considered enough to cover the winning team’s expenses to play 4 matches to reach the final, which included travel, accommodation and payment for the final. Match. Official.
The FA claims that the prize money gap between the men’s and women’s festival is the result of the much larger profit streams generated through the men’s festival. year. This benefit allows us to reinvest in football in all grades and, as a result, we have made significant progress in the development of women’s football. “
The men’s FA Cup is the oldest national football festival in the world. First held in 1871 and televised since 1938, it has gained international popularity as the most prestigious national cup festival in the game. In comparison, the Women’s FA Cup was created in 1971. , only after the lifting of part of a century-long ban on women’s football imposed by the FA in 1921. So he was denied the same business opportunities created through normal media policy and television exposure and many that match the prize money now, despite the higher revenue generated through the men’s festival, would serve as reparation for damages. The FA’s 50-year ban imposed on the progression of women’s football.
The proposals advised through Lewes FC, dubbed Equality FC for its equivalent remuneration policy for its men’s and women’s groups, aim to redistribute FA awards more equitably to gain advantages not only from women’s groups, but also from declining and non-declining groups of men. league leagues. Their concept is to offer an equivalent amount of cash prizes to all groups according to the setting they play in the competition, the “Equality” approach in an equivalent prize fund according to the setting.
A proposal at the moment comes to a fundamental allocation of 50/50 in the combined price, the so-called “Equity” approach. increase investment in women’s football so it can regain lost ground faster. Although this approach is favored by other people than in the reparations argument, it is argued that it would end up overcompensating to women’s groups.
The core of either strategy is to take the excess cash that is paid out of the men’s FA Cup quarter-finals and redistribute it. Of an existing total of £15. 9 million ($21. 5 million) in the men’s FA Cup, £6. 84 million ($9. 25 million) or 45% of the total prize goes to the 8 groups that triumph in the quarter-finals. Historically, the 8 groups that triumph at this point in the men’s FA Cup are Premier League groups that, already earning between £95 million and £140 million depending on the season to play at the point of the men’s game, do not financially count on this additional prize: cash. If this money were redistributed, it is claimed, to women’s groups and men’s clubs in the lower leagues, the same money can have a transformative effect.
Speaking to me last month, Lewes FC board member Charlie Dobres explained to me “that equality is an emerging tide that lifts all boats. “there deserves to be equal. The momentum we are thinking about is with us. We are not looking for a solution where men lose, women win because it would not be equality and it would be very difficult to sell. We are looking for a win-win solution.
He insisted that the adoption of his proposals would be “so wonderfully in line with the FA’s slogan ‘For All’. This would necessarily reimagine the FA Cup as the ‘For All’ trophy. The trophy that when you get into it, it’s something that small groups of men and groups of women can get massive advantages than groups that already make a lot of money at the top. “
The total prize pool of the women’s FA Cup overall is lately £430,000 ($562,133), less than 2% of the men’s prize fund. While the FA Women’s Super League has benefited from a new televised deal with Sky Sports that allows all matches to be broadcast live on television or via a streaming platform, of last month’s 16 matches in the Women’s FA Cup, only one had to be watched live.
A new organisation of women’s football enthusiasts called the Women’s Football Fan Collective was formed in December through supporters who reacted to the announcement of the voluntary liquidation of second-tier club Coventry United. to demonstrate in the 51st and 71st minutes of each fits with the chant “no if, no but, equivalent to the FA Cup”.
Her crusade for equality is based on 3 pillars, that women’s football deserves a game point, now and in the future; correct the FA’s old mistakes and that women’s football will never be economically viable until the players are paid well and for their work.
Under increasing pressure from the media to mitigate the gulf of the value of money, the FA attempted to avoid negative exposure by publishing the proposal two days before the planned protests. “Although the festival does not yet generate advertising profits to fund value growth, the FA Board of Directors agreed to a significant accumulation of awards for the continued progression of the festival. More major points will be announced in due course and the additional value will take effect from the 2022/23 season. “
This accumulation was despite everything that was shown yesterday, but the main points about the delivery of the prize money remain unclear, but the FA has pledged that “a disproportionate amount of this new fund will be invested in the first rounds of the competition”. This will ensure that clubs further down the pyramid when entering those towers feel the advantages of the prize money won. “They added that “in due course more main points will be announced about the design of the new investment and what it will be like. “spread across the other stages of the Vitality Women’s FA Cup next season. “