Credit: Twitter
England’s women’s football team was on the verge of making history as they faced Spain in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 final on Sunday. The Lionesses had impressed with their performances throughout the tournament, beating Australia, Colombia, and Sweden in the knockout stages. However, their achievements have been overshadowed by a controversy over the win bonus that they were entitled to receive from the Football Association (FA) if they lifted the trophy.
According to reports, the FA had refused to pay a £100,000 win bonus to each player before the tournament started, despite the players asking for only a fifth of what the England men’s team would have been rewarded if they had won the World Cup in Qatar last year. When the FA was questioned about whether the women had asked for £100,000 for each World Cup victory, they responded that they couldn't answer out of respect for their athletes.
The win bonus dispute has drawn criticism from several former players and pundits, including Ian Wright, who called it “really quite embarrassing” while speaking for ITV Sport ahead of the final against Spain. Wright, who is a vocal supporter of women’s football and a BBC commentator for the World Cup, said that he hopes that the coach, Sarina Wiegman, gets paid what she deserves and the players receive the bonus they demand as well.
The Lionesses thought an upgrade would be fitting if they won the biggest trophy on earth. The Lionesses each got a bonus of £55,000 from the FA for winning the Euros last summer. If England's men's team had won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, they would have received £500,000 each. The FA believed that the women's request for just 20% of the men's figure was excessive when it came to women. However, the women's side lost their final against Spain 1-0 on Sunday in the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.
The FA would have received $4.29 million (£3.4 million) from FIFA if England had won the final, and each player would have received $270,000 (£212,000). The second-place team's football association will receive £2.4 million, while the players will each receive £153,000. Due to a sliding scale of bonuses put in place by FIFA, even the FAs of the teams eliminated at the group stage took home £1.23 million, while the players who left at that time each received £23,600.
