England’s Lionesses’ embarrassingly low wages compared to men revealed including bonuses if they win Women’s World Cup

ENGLAND’S Lionesses will get paid a fraction of the money their male counterparts received for their World Cup exploits – even if they lift the trophy.

Sarina Wiegman’s side face Australia in tomorrow’s Women’s World Cup semi-final.

It is the third time in a row England have reached the final four, losing on their two previous appearances.

But Fifa figures expose the huge discrepancy between the pay for the men’s and women’s tournaments.

All countries across the two events were given a £1.18million fee for qualifying for the group stages.

However, the overall prize pot for the women’s edition stands at just a quarter of the men’s.

Fifa boosted the women’s fund by 226 per cent to £86m for Australia-New Zealand 2023 while the Qatar 2022 number was £346m.

As for the winners, Argentina landed a cool £33m but the nation that wins Sunday’s final in Sydney will receive just £3.38m.

The beaten finalists will get £2.37m while England are guaranteed at least £1.93m for reaching the semis.

By comparison, Gareth Southgate’s men earned England a whopping £13.38m – despite getting knocked out in the quarter-finals.

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And teams that went home after the group stages collected more than £7m – double that of the Women’s World Cup champions.

The USA, who won it 2015 and 2019, crashed out in the last 16 this time around.

But the total money won by the women’s team and the men in Qatar, around £12.79m, will be divvied up evenly among the 49 players after an equal-pay agreement was reached.

It means, once ten per cent is sliced off for US Soccer, the footballers will take home approximately £234,000 each.

The average annual wage for female footballers globally is around £11,000 – although the BBC stated last year in England’s WSL it is around £47,000.

However, that is a tiny proportion of the men in the Premier League, who earn an average of £60,000 per week which equates to £3.12m a year.

That prompted Fifa to introduce bonuses for the individual players at the Women’s World Cup on top of the country’s prize money.

It means all 23 members of the trophy-winning squad on Sunday will pocket £212,500.

By reaching the last four, the Lionesses have already secured £129,000 as a personal bonus from Fifa – more than double the £55,000 they got for winning the Euros in 2022.

‘REAL AND MEANINGFUL IMPACT’

The men received £300,000 each for reaching the Euro 2020 final the year before – and would have got £460,000 per player had they won the shootout against Italy at Wembley.

England pay their Three Lions and Lionesses £2,000 every time they represent the national team, with the men’s match fees given straight to charity.

But the disparity for FA bonuses triggered a public statement from the Lionesses blasting the national governing body on the eve of the World Cup.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino hailed the “unprecedented new distribution model” for personal player bonuses at the Women’s World Cup, which sealed at least £23,600 for all 732 players at the tournament.

He said: “Eeach individual player can now fully rely on remuneration for their efforts as they progress through the tournament.

“The captain that ultimately lifts the iconic Fifa Women’s World Cup Trophy on August 20 in Sydney will receive $270,000 (£212,500), as will each of her 22 team-mates.

“The global salary of women’s professional footballers is approximately $14,000 (£11,000) annually so the amounts allocated under this unprecedented new distribution model will have a real and meaningful impact on the lives and careers of these players.

“Beyond this, all member associations will also receive a record financial distribution based on their performance, which they can use to reinvest back into football in their countries and which we believe will help to propel the women’s game even further.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk