Women's World Cup: Australians call on FIFA for equal pay

Three days before the opening of the Women's World Cup, one of the two host teams, Australia, has taken to social media to call on FIFA and sports federations to establish equal treatment between male and female athletes. The Matildas, as the players of the Australian team are called, were the first in 2019 to achieve equal pay. A social conquest still far from being generalized.

Australia's Emily van Egmond, in Sydney, October 23, 2021. AP - Rick Rycroft

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With our correspondent in Sydney, Grégory Plesse

Less than a decade ago, the International Football Federation did not have much regard for women footballers. This is what Australian Emily Van Egmond recalls in a video posted a few hours ago by the Australian union of professional players: "In 2015, FIFA made us play the World Cup on artificial turf. The grass was fake, but the disrespect was real.

For the past four years, the Matildas have enjoyed equal pay and working conditions with their male counterparts. An unprecedented agreement when it was signed four years ago, still very rare today, but which has helped to change mentalities, including at FIFA, which announced the tripling of bonuses paid this year for the World Cup.

This is obviously better than four years ago, but it is still much lower than the amounts awarded to men, as Tamara Yallop and Cortnee Vine recall in the same video: "The amount of FIFA bonuses is only a quarter of those paid to men, for the same results," says the first. "And our sisters in the Australian League continue to fight for football to be a full-time job, for them to no longer have to work elsewhere part-time, as was the case for us.

Australia's Matildas released a video statement calling out gender disparity in World Cup prize money and voicing support for women players denied 'the basic right' of collective bargaining in pay negotiations https://t.co/zSEHFzRSqQ pic.twitter.com/jrnQQVtt9H

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 17, 2023

In fact, the Matildas no longer need to carry out any other activity. The team's star, Sam Kerr, by signing with Chelsea, became the highest paid female footballer in the world.

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• Australia
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