Women’s world cup is breaking records, but that’s not enough for FIFA
By Itzel Luna
The 2019 Women’s World Cup has broken victory records and increased viewership. Despite their accomplishments and FIFA’s statutes that promote a commitment to ‘gender equality,’ women are still underfunded compared to the Men’s World Cup.
FIFA claims that this pay gap reflects the revenue difference produced by the tournaments. Yet, they have failed to provide sufficient evidence that backs up their claims.
“Since we started out, we haven’t just fought against opponents, we’ve fought against prejudice,” Germany’s women’s national team said in an ad for the women’s World Cup in May.
In October 2018, FIFA announced that the Women’s World Cup prize money for 2019 will increase from $15 million to $30 million.
“It’s a very important message for women’s football. It will certainly boost this World Cup even more,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a news conference.
This prize raise means that the winning team will go home with $4 million. Yet, doubling the money still leaves a gap between women and men.
Last year, the 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Russia competed for $400 million. The champions, France, took home $38 million.
“Pay gaps like this persist because of entrenched sexism,” Professor of Sociology and gender studies Michael Messner said in an email interview. “Even in cases where women garner an equal amount of fan excitement, it still seems ‘normal’ to pay men more.”
This prize gap left critics unimpressed. The global footballers’ union FIFPRO stated that this prize raise highlighted how far the World cup is from equality.
“The changes actually signify an increase in the gap between men’s and women’s prize money,” FIFPRO said in a statement. “This regressive trend appears to contravene FIFA’s statutory commitment to gender equality.”
Financial obstacles aren’t the only roadblock that these women are facing. In their kickoff game on June 11, the United States team beat Thailand 13–0, setting a record for the most goals in a single game for both the Women’s and Men’s World Cup.
Instead of applauding the U.S. team for making FIFA history, many fans and former national team players criticized them for celebrating after every goal.
“I just think they could have won with some humility and grace and they just couldn’t manage to do that,” former Canadian women’s national team player Clare Rustad said on the sports network TSN.
Some fans defended the U.S. team, calling the criticism sexist. Retired American soccer player and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Abby Wambach took to Twitter to stand up for the team.
“For all that have an issue with many goals: for some players, this is their first World Cup goal, and they should be excited,” Wambach said in a tweet. “Would you tell a men’s team to not score or celebrate?”
Twitter critics also chose to ignore the sportsmanship that forward Alex Morgan showed as she comforted crying Thai player Miranda Nild after the game, offering words of encouragement.
The viewership of the Women’s World Cup has increased this year compared to the one in 2015. Ten million people in France alone tuned in to watch the first game and one billion people are expected to watch at least some games, according to FIFA.
“I think it’s important to showcase the efforts and talent of women across the board,” Nina Sepahi, a sophomore at Santa Clara University, said. “We definitely can be on the same level as men and are in many cases.”
Yet, a 2015 study of sports media conducted at the University of Southern California named “It’s Dude Time!: A quarter-century of excluding women’s sports in televised news and highlight shows” found that coverage in women’s sports has declined in recent years.
“They’re not getting a lot of coverage and they’re obviously doing big things,” USC junior Sonali Matta said. “There’s no reason why men’s sports should have any more coverage than women’s sports do.”
In 2014, the survey showed that LA-based network broadcast and ESPN’s SportsCenter used only 3.2 percent of airtime on women’s sports, down from five percent in 1989.
This study has been conducted every five years since 1989 and they are currently collecting data for the next study.
“[For this year’s data] We are including online sports news sources this time, to supplement and compare with TV news and highlights,” co-author of the study Messner said. “We do this, of course, because many people get their sports news online today. We will see how the data shakes out.”
On March 8, all 28 members of USNWT filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation(USSF).
“The USSF has utterly failed to promote gender equality,” the team says in the lawsuit. “It has stubbornly refused to treat its female employees who are a member of the WNT equally to its male employees who are members of the MNT.”
On June 21, both the USSF and USWNT agreed to begin a mediation process after the Women’s World Cup is over.
