On the occasion of the start of the European Championship, on July 6 in England, we offer you a series of articles dedicated to women's football. This Thursday, the fourth part is devoted to the thorny issue of equal pay, the progress of which is still very uneven from one country to another.
Find the first episode:
"We have everything to succeed", assures Clara Matéo, the Swiss army knife of the France team
The second:
Why are there so few coaches in women's football?
And the third:
Three years after the World Cup in France, where is French women's football?
A curious paradox, as the United States knows how to serve us.
While looming over American women the threat of obscurantism materialized by the revocation of the right to abortion pronounced by the Supreme Court, the American star Megan Rapinoe savors the fruit of a long feminist struggle: that for the equal pay for American soccer players.
"We play knowing that we will win more," welcomed the Ballon d'Or 2019 at the opening of an international tournament in which the USA participate in Monterrey, Mexico.
“We are going to set the pace for the next generations, for players from other countries.
We are very proud, it took a lot of work to get here.
»
In February, a group of female players led by Rapinoe obtained from her federation the promise of remuneration equivalent to that of their male counterparts.
"US Soccer is committed to paying equal pay from now on for the women's and men's national teams in all friendlies and tournaments, including the World Cup," the federation wrote last winter.
The deal is for a total of $24 million, $22 million of which will be distributed through a mode proposed by the players of the women's national team.
The United States is thus taking the train set in motion by Norway in 2017, to which Brazil, England, New Zealand and Australia had already joined.
The Women's Euro 2022 which starts this Wednesday also marks a new era for Spanish football.
This competition is the first where female players will receive as much as their male colleagues in terms of bonuses and image rights.
The agreement signed in June has its limits, in this case an expiry date (2027).
This did not prevent Irene Paredes, one of the three signatory players, from congratulating herself.
“It's a historic day […] We have signed a five-year agreement that will allow us to reach the next world and European championships and, hopefully, the Olympic Games.
We must promote women's sport, we strive to close the gap with men's sport.
»
And in France, when is it?
Asked about the issue of equal pay for women and men in the wake of the agreement between US Soccer and American players, Wendie Renard does not feel legitimate to demand such a privilege for French internationals.
“We know that American football is way ahead of European football because soccer is really the number one sport there.
In fact there is no photo, argued the French defender.
Today, they have titles, they have a track record so they can afford to have this fight with their federation.
In terms of the media, they are really popular whereas this is very little the case in Europe with the national teams.
You have to keep working to win.
And then when you win, you have more power to ask for things.
»
It should be noted that the national federations are not the only guarantors or gravediggers of equal pay.
For Euro 2022 and according to the newspaper
L'Equipe
, UEFA has planned to pay 2.08 million euros to the winning team, a figure much lower than the 28.5 million euros received last summer by the Italian champions of Europe.
And if the FFF played the card of equality by promising to donate 30% of UEFA's overall allocation to female players and technical staff, the same percentage as for boys, as much equity, it , is far from being reached.
Which does not necessarily seem to move Corinne Deacon.
“UEFA's allocations only concern the president of the federation and the financial department.
In any case, on our side, I can assure you that we have everything we need to prepare ourselves well.
»
Winning the Euro is not enough to cover the expenses
The problem is there.
Ensuring the proper functioning of a female selection is done at a loss.
The vice-president of the FFF Philippe Diallo indicated that the sums committed for the French women's team at the Euro would not even be covered in the event of a title.
The participation of the Bleues in the tournament is estimated at 2.9 million in expenses and, Diallo specified during a general assembly of the 3F, an elimination in the quarter-finals would represent "a loss of 1.6 million euros for the federation .
In this competition, even if you win sportingly, you do not win economically”.
"I know it's a balance, tells us Soraya Belkadi, coach of Montauban (D2), but, for me, there should be a bigger gesture for women from the FFF, why not with a budget more important for these competitions.
We must try to fight at the level of the spheres above the federations.
Yes, the federation will be fair on the share it pays, but it is not the same for equivalent efforts.
The FFF has that said a complicated position.
»
Very unequal working conditions
Finally, there remains the material aspect of the fight for equality between the sexes in football.
Ada Hegerberg laughed yellow at the announcement of France's candidacy for the organization of Euro 2025 when the means invested in women's football remain derisory.
According to her, the working conditions of the players remain very perfectible and their status very often precarious.
“There is a lot of work to be done on professionalism because some have to work on the side, she said in an interview with
So Foot
, in 2021. We must create the best conditions to develop our sport.
Wendie Renard: “It's not the equality that is most interesting.
These are already the structures.
I often say it but the structures in the clubs and the daily life (are the most important).
[…] This is progressing well in Europe and we will move towards this equality in the years to come and that's normal, because I think we deserve it too.
»
Organizing international competitions is good.
Investing in our championship is better.
We are picking up and the CDM 2019 had no impact.
https://t.co/yF6ebrAJZs
— Ada S Hegerberg (@AdaStolsmo) February 7, 2022
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Speaking of Ada Hegerberg, the Lyonnaise had consolidated her superstar status by signing, in 2020, a ten-year contract with Nike valued at one million euros.
For comparison, the advertising revenue of Cristiano Ronaldo, the highest-earning footballer last year according to
Forbes
, was around $55 million.
What relativize the microscopic victory of Rapinoe and her teammates in an infinite ocean of inequalities.
Sport
Euro 2022: Privileged men, experience, training… Why are there so few female coaches in women's football?
Sport
Women's Euro: "We have everything to succeed", assures Clara Matéo, the Swiss army knife of the France team
women's euro football
Soccer
Wendie Fox
Corinne Deacon
FFF
Uefa
Sport
gender equality