Lucy Bronze on Lionesses' bonus row: 'The players feel empowered'
Lucy Bronze says the England squad feel “very empowered” after writing a joint statement criticising the Football Association over the lack of a performance-related bonus deal for the Lionesses at the Women’s World Cup – and insists the matter will not distract them from their bid for glory on the pitch.
Speaking in Brisbane the morning after releasing an unprecedented joint statement – signed by all 25 players – on the eve of the tournament, Barcelona right-back Bronze said the Lionesses were fighting for progress not just for themselves but for everyone in the women’s game.
The 31-year-old also insisted the debate is not merely about finances, saying: “It’s the principle of what we want to improve in women’s football. Whether that’s commercially, or on or off the pitch, whether that’s performance-based, it’s [about] being rewarded for the things you have done. We are the European Champions. We have changed the game massively in England so we want everything to fall in line.”
This Women’s World Cup will see players from every competing nation receive bonuses centrally from Fifa for the first time. The England players want a bonus structure specifically from the FA, separate to the Fifa deal, and it is understood there is also debate around other matters, including what restrictions, if any, are placed on the players’ promotion of personal commercial deals on their social media channels.
Bronze added: “I think the players are feeling very empowered. I think it’s the first time as a player group we’ve actually ever sent the message out ourselves, that we’ve collectively done together. In that respect it’s a very empowered player group last night and this morning, and these past few weeks.”
Asked if she was confident the matter would not be a distraction from their goals on the pitch – they play Haiti on Saturday – Bronze replied: “I’m 100 per cent confident that we will not be distracted by this. Every single one of our players is fully focused on playing in the games and playing great football. If you were to come and watch training, the level of intensity that we have on the pitch is probably second to none right now.
“These conversations happen regularly, they’re probably just not in the media. They happened before the Euros and I don’t think it distracted us then because we went on and won it. There’s many things that fall under the name of female footballers and I think we’re fully capable of managing that ourselves. We have a great group of girls that are able to share the load and make sure that we’re all focused on what our aim, and that is to get to the World Cup final.”
Bronze does not expect players to go on strike over the bonus issue, however, adding: “I don’t think we made any threats as players, I think we’re quite well spoken. And we know how to kind of stand our ground – I can’t say the conversations ever got to be that heated.
“We’ve set out bullet points of what we want to achieve as a team, how we can help change the game. I think we are in a more fortunate position than many other nations because we kind of have a good relationship with our federation where we’re able to openly speak to them and challenge them - they challenge us and we challenge them to improve our game.
“I think that’s one of the fortunate things - that we play for a nation like England, where we know that we are capable of making change, so we can push and push. Because as much as we want to make changes as players, we know that the federation wants to make those changes as well.
“I’m pretty sure that we’ll find solutions. And I’ll never get to the point that potentially other teams have – to go down that kind of [strike] route.”
Bronze also wants to help drive change in other nations: “We’re not only doing this for ourselves, we’re doing it so that we can set a standard.
“It’s something that we’ve seen in the US team for many years. I know when we speak we’ll be like ‘Why are the USA doing this or doing that’, because they’ve set the standard or an expectation of what you can do in women’s football and what it brings.
“It’s unfortunate that it has come before the World Cup, but at the same time, it’s because the World Cup gives us the big stage. It’s when people want to listen to us, it’s when things really matter.
“It’s about finding a solution that works for both of us, that we can both be striving to make the game better and better.”
Bronze added that the debate is not about equal pay, and pay parity with their male counterparts at England is not something they are asking for: “The equal pay with the men’s (teams) is kind of a different topic because I think it’s bigger and completely different both in terms of the Fifa prize money, and in terms of England as a federation.
“But we’re trying to set a trail for what women’s football should look like in our country. It doesn’t necessarily need to mirror the men’s image.”
