Each member of Nigeria’s Super Falcons will be N13.8million ($30,000) richer for being part of this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup as FIFA have decided to disburse the money to the players directly rather than the national federations.
The world football governing body has decided to share some of the prize money with the players that take part in the championships.
All 23 members of the winning team will take home $270,000 dollars each, part of a $110m total prize pool that is roughly 300 per cent higher than what FIFA offered for the 2019 tournament.
The $30,000 minimum directed prize money is more than twice the average salary of $14,000 for paid players surveyed in FIFA’s 2022 benchmarking report.
In March, FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, pledged at the FIFA Congress that organisers would direct prize money towards the players, a first for the women’s tournament, which kicks off on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
For the upcoming Women’s World Cup, member-associations will also receive increased funding based on performance, with winners taking $4.29m home and delegations earning $1.56m for participating in the group stage.
The total performance-based prize funds still significantly trail what was on offer at the men’s tournament last year, where $440m total prize fund was awarded.
FIFA has made it clear to national federations that it expects that the amount retained by member-associations would be reinvested in their footballing activities, including coaching staff, grassroots projects, youth national teams and women’s football capacity-building programmes.
FIFPRO said the news “represents not only the outcome of tremendous global collective action by 150 national team players, but a constructive negotiation with FIFA over the past months.”
“They have listened to the voice of the players and we have taken steps toward greater gender equality in our game at the highest levels,” the global soccer players union said in a statement.
