FIFA Will Pay Women’s World Cup Players—But How?
For the first time in Women’s World Cup history, FIFA will allocate prize money directly to players participating in this summer’s tournament.
The new payment model earmarks at least $30,000 for every participant, increasing with each round a team advances before maxing out at a $270,000 payout for each of the 23 members of the trophy-winning roster, according to FIFA. All 32 participating member associations—the governing bodies overseeing each country’s national team—will also receive a cut of the record $110 million total pool to support their own operations based on their team’s performance, but FIFA’s decision to restructure the tournament’s payout means more than half of the prize money awarded in Australia and New Zealand will end up in the hands of the players.
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That’s the goal, at least. The hard part is ensuring the plan’s execution.
The new system was put in place in response to the repeated emphasis by FIFPRO—the global players’ union that challenged FIFA to guarantee a portion of the prize money would go to the players—that there are still countries that fail to compensate their women’s national team players. “Many players have no agreement with their member associations to ensure they receive fair and equitable treatment, including a guaranteed World Cup compensation, for example, as a portion of World Cup prize money,” the organization wrote in a letter sent to FIFA last October.
Even women’s team players with federation contracts have been shortchanged before. Back in 2019, for example, less than three months after the country made its Women’s World Cup debut, members of the Jamaican national team claimed they had not received the money owed to them in their federation contracts and said they would “not be participating in any games or training sessions” until that changed.
This year’s total prize money is more than three times the $30 million paid out during that 2019 World Cup in France, but FIFPRO says “no matter the amount of prize money available, players are not granted a share in what they endeavor on the field to earn—a share that would support their careers and livelihoods. This is especially true for our fellow World Cup competitors around the world who are still not yet fully professional.”
By splitting the prize funds into two distinct pools this year, FIFA hopes to rectify that.
It is unclear, however, how the global governing body will track receipt of each player’s remuneration. In its announcement, FIFA did not outline plans for how the payments would be made. For example, will they be sent to each participating country’s governing body, as in years past, with the expectation that they will disburse the earmarked player funds? Or might players be paid directly? FIFA does intend to monitor the implementation of the payments in coordination with FIFPRO, a person familiar with the plans said, but how it will do so remains to be seen. FIFA declined to comment.
“The key behind the success of this model is that it is universally applied, and it is fair, which is what female footballers tell us they want above all else,” David Aganzo, FIFPRO’s president, said in a statement earlier this week.
A spokesperson for FIFPRO did not immediately respond to requests for comment on tracking payouts.
World Cup prizes are a significant source of income for many players worldwide. Globally, the average salary of professional women's soccer players is about $14,000 each year, according to FIFA’s 2022 benchmarking report. In countries like the U.S., however, players tend to earn more. The minimum player salary is the NWSL, for example, is $36,400 for 2023. Star players can earn significantly more than the base outlined in the CBA when allocation money is included. U.S. women’s national team players also receive separate pay from U.S. Soccer.
FIFA’s total investment in this year’s World Cup—the ninth iteration of the women's event—is budgeted to exceed $500 million. The 2023 tournament marks the first to take place in the Southern Hemisphere and is on track to become the most attended Women’s World Cup in history. According to FIFA, more than 1 million (1,032,884) tickets have been sold with more than a month to go before the opening game, already surpassing the 2019 ticket sales in France.
The tournament kicks off July 20.
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