US women soccer players want equal pay to US men's team.

In contrast, who do you tick off by reducing the Men's WC payout? The very powerful federations of Germany, Italy, France, Argentina and Brazil. In FIFA politics this is called a win.

 

And ultimately, how many of the Men's players are really going to care if the size of their World Cup bonuses shrink, especially in Europe? IIRC, when France won in 2018, several of the players simply gave away their bonuses. Maybe it's different for the South American players, as I don't remember hearing anything like this in 2022, so that I'm not sure about.

Ultimately, I see the situation for European players as similar to how I see the US Men's player situation. Their income levels have reached the point where perhaps it is perfectly fine for them to accommodate on the World Cup bonus debate.

 

Feminism is always been women st the top .

 

^^^^^^^^^^^

strong incel vibes

 

Anybody that criticizes feminism or mras are incels

 

If it’s based on a stupid and wrong definition of feminism, yeah.

 

I agree that the pointing to the women's team's World Cup success to make an unfavorable comparison to the men's team is substantively ridiculous, and find that argument annoying. All the same, I'm reluctant to blame the women for making that invalid argument for PR purposes.

To understand why I don't blame them, think about it this way: the women's team provides considerable value for the USSF. But, because the USSF is essentially a monopsony employer, they feel no material incentive to return much of that value to the women's team in the form of compensation, because the players have nowhere else to go. The players can't sell their labor to the highest bidder - in national team soccer, there are no other possible bidders. The natural tendency would be toward something analogous to the suppressed salaries that MLB players were paid prior to free agency.

So, what possible leverage does the women's team have when trying to get a substantial share of the value that they create? PR campaigns, lawsuits, and the threat of work stoppages are their only options. And as lawsuits and work stoppages are very costly and potentially risky (for both sides), I'm reluctant to judge the WNT's advocates for drawing on whatever arguments they can possibly muster when conducting PR campaigns.

The single-employer situation also exists for men's national team soccer, of course. But the big money available in club ball means that the men's players have leverage that the women don't (via credible exit threat); it also means that their basic economic well-being isn't as dependent on being able to extract a certain share of compensation from the national federation.

 

Those of us familiar with USSF finances already knew that the women had a sweetheart deal. So do the men for that matter. The women did have questions if there were some hidden deals with SUM. Those of us familiar with the actual income generated knew this was unlikely. In the end, this narrative was suspiciously close to the federation's windfall money from hosting the Copa America Centenario, a men's tournament. So, no, I don't share your feelings.

 

My only question is, once prize money is equalized, how long before the USWNT sues USSF because it's not fair that they are contributing more prize money to the pool, and the USMNT is taking money that the USWNT earned?

 

August 2023: WNT sues the USSF because FIFA has equalized prize money meaning they now have to split the bonus from their championship or semifinal run or whatever with the men who only made the R16 in 2022. Media repeats their claim uncritically, people who try to mention what happened over the previous 8 years are called conspiracy theorists and misogynist, Cindy Parlow Cone pretends to be working for all of US soccer while submarining the men's program behind the scenes, politicians threaten funding to the 2026 WC if the wealthy suburban white women don't get their pockets further lined, and Nike ultimately forces the men's team to bend the knee and accept prize payouts based on their own performance.....more or less the same deal they had until about a year ago.

 

Why is that your question? It doesn’t make any sense.

 

Fifa can easily equate WWC without lowering WC prize money. Fifa makes an obscene profit out of every modern WC. They can afford to pay. They will still make a huge profit; the WC is that profitable.

I would rather see FIFA splitting the cost of running the WC and WWC with the host country. Also, they should negotiate WWC TV money separately or split in half if they keep doing a bundle deal.

FYI, USMNT didn't compromise any potential revenue with the new deal; they actually will be making substantially more. The federation and federation run programs got the short stick and will lose a lot of money.

 

My only question is why are you such an ass?

 

Where do the profits go? How much of it is distributed to member nations?

I honestly have no idea here…I thought a big chunk of the profits go out as a kind of dividend.

 

Fifa had a net profit of USD 2.3 billion in 2022 due to Qatar Cup. This is more than enough to equate the prize money and still retain a good profit.
https://publications.fifa.com/en/an...dated-statement-of-comprehensive-income-2022/

FIFA reports a net profit of USD 935 million between 2019-2022, so the WC revenue is enough to cover all FIFA cost and still make a sizable profit, not bad for a non-profit organization.

But I don't expect FIFA to agree to equal prize money just because FIFPro (a player union with no formal ties to FIFA) send a letter requesting it; not sure why ppl here are assuming FIFA will comply.

IMHO, FIFA is in a very different situation than USSF; The WNT won the public debate and the legal action kept the story in the news cycle. FIFA isn't facing the same pressure. If the letter would have come from different federations, if most of the federations were asking for equal prize money than I would expect FIFA to comply.

FIFA gives money on a 4 year cycle to federations through their Development and Education program, which was USD 2.5 billion on the 2019-2022 cycle.
https://publications.fifa.com/en/an...cle-in-review/2019-2022-investments-expenses/

Each federation gets around USD 9 million for the 4 year cycle.

 

Fifa did increase 2023 WWC prize money to USD 110 million and Infantino stated he is trying to equate WC and WWC prize money by the 2026/2027 WCs. So there was already a movement in play at FIFA to equate the prize money, I doubt it was due to the FIFPro letter.

https://www.fifa.com/womens-footbal...gnificant-investment-increase-for-fifa-womens

 

Does FIFA charge the same ticket prices for the men's and women's world cup. If they charge less for the WWC, are they not devaluing women's soccer while at the same time discriminating against fans of the men's world cup by charging them more to attend?

 

lol, confirmation bias much?

Each Cup, either WCs or WWCs, are independent events with unique organization committee. FIFA charge different ticket price for each WC, so why you expect equal ticket price between WC and WWC?! They charge as much as they can give the popularity of the game in the country, local economics and the expected number or foreign fans.

Qatar WC had lower than expected foreign fans and was very easy to get multiple tickets, so the organization really couldn't charge much; I expect 2026 WC to have very very very expensive tickets. A WWC in US would also expensive tickets. Most of FIFA money comes from TV broadcasting deals anyway.

 

If the prize money is going to be the same, then I think the ticket prices should be too. If we are going to ignore supply and demand, then let's go all in.

 

While, I am surprised FIFA is moving to equate the prizes and I never called for the prizes to be equalized.

The litmus test is: By equalizing the WCs prize money is FIFA outside its main mission, is it putting its finance at risk or will it have to cut investments in youth program, development etc ?

You must consider that:

1) FIFA is a non-profit organization with a single mission to develop and expand the game.
2) FIFA is in the driving seat, they are planning to equate prizes and, as I shown, has the resources to back it up.
3) FIFA can equate the prizes and still make a profit (also has over USD 3.9 billion in reserves), so no initiatives or program will be hurt.

By equating the prize, FIFA is making a huge gesture to support and develop the women game, and they have enough resources to do so without compromising any development program. Therefore no, FIFA don't need charge the same if the market can't bear it or the demand isn't the same. They are acting as the custodian of the game and making a huge investment without any compromisses.

This is very different from the USSF deal with the NTs. USSF had to forgo a huge part of their future revenue; Therefore, they will have to significantly decrease investments and programs.

If FIFA equates the prize money this will have a deep impact on the USSF deal with the teams. Why is USSF paying 80% (by 2026) to the NTs pool. I imagine USWNT would want to get out of the deal asap. NTs usually gets 30% of prize money hard to justify paying more.

 

There are competing (and sometimes contradictory) definitions of feminism. We don't need your mansplaining here.

 

FIFA is trying to use this logic to convince TV rights holders and advertisers to pay more for the women's world cup. Woke capitalism at its finest.

 

Giving big money away does wonders to drum up interest. It truly works. See Women's Tennis.

 

Then: Good for FIFA!

WOKE - alert to racial prejudice and discrimination

I see no problem with a WOKE agenda.
In fact it is a large part of what I would consider being a decent human being.

In world soccer if the underlying agenda is not "WOKE" then it is doomed to oppress some group of people or, worse, activity discriminate and thereby weaken teams and drive fans away.
Also if the capitalism driving FIFA's money choices is not "WOKE" then the money is tainted and acquired by the same kind of mechanism that made and makes slavery popular.
And that makes the whole "non-discrimination" position simply a lie.
Therefore all FIFA decisions need to be "WOKE."

 

Your avatar tells me a lot about your view of feminism.

yep