Maca Sanchez was on BBC Sportshour this week in a 5-minute interview – she feels certain that the lawsuit will end her football career in Argentina. Sanchez is seeking professionalization for women footballers in Argentina (Macarena Sanchez Jeanney, cc-by-sa) No mon€y issue$ that we know of, but I made a China 2019 thread too.
Not far from Argentina, there are some rumblings up in Colombia as well, as a couple players recently posted videos in multiple languages about the club league there and other issues they have with the national federation: https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2019/02/19/female-soccer-players-in-colombia-denounce-discrimination/
More info today about Colombia – accusations of non-payment of bonuses and allowances, years without WNT training camps, and dropping players who complained. Overseas players say they have to fund their own flights. - https://fifpro.org/news/colombian-football-scandal-what-you-need-to-know/en/ (Archived)
Er, it gets much worse: Crisis in Colombia (2019) - https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/crisis-in-colombia-2019.2102434/ Elsewhere, the USWNT are suing U.S. Soccer again: - https://www.npr.org/2019/03/08/7015...eam-sues-u-s-soccer-for-gender-discrimination (Archived) - https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/uswnt-sues-ussf-2019-version.2102381/ Last month it was revealed that the men's headcoaches were paid something like eight times more than World Champion™ Jill Ellis in recent years – despite the U.S. men's team utterly failing in that time. They gave the rest of the world a chuckle, but that's not worth $3m.
Add Northern Ireland to the list of teams in dispute in 2018 - players asked for more wage compensation, while the IFA dragged its feet. But it isn't clear what became of the talks. This week the IFA pledged more money for girls' football: - https://www.irishnews.com/sport/foo...ed-at-doubling-participation-by-2024-1597366/ The Northern Irish team (Photo: BBC)
$ponsorship$$ news, the English WSL signed a deal with Barclays in March, worth £10m over 3 years, so that the FA can continue its wise stewardship of the sport, lol Shirt sponsorships might be even more lucrative, if this figure is correct – Barcelona's women's team made a profit in 2018/19, due to the €3.5m paid by a U.S. company to be on the jersey. Maybe that's why Barça are so keen to start an American team? You'd have to ask Stanley Black & Decker. Barça's Asisat Oshoala in the CL final 2019 (Steffen Prößdorf, cc-by-sa)
About Oshoala's Super Falcons, a DW-TV film focused on the lack of financial and other support: Would winning the World Cup help? Well.. Cost of women’s soccer in US excluding various ethnic groups - https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/so...-us-excluding-various-ethnic-groups-1.3979491 (Archived) Oh, now I see
I saw a link to that article and read it a couple of weeks ago. My opinion, at that time, was that it was very uninformed.
More about the debate in Nigeria – star striker Oshoala has gone in a different direction from captain Oparanozie and goalkeeper Oluehi, who want equal pay from the NFF: South Africa: In January 2019 the national sports ministry pledged 5 million rand (€300,000) in funding for the semi-pro women's league for 3 years. They asked businesses and media to join them in supporting the league – sadly, no one came through, and the FA has launched it without a sponsor or a broadcaster: - https://www.newframe.com/a-new-dawn-in-womens-football-in-south-africa/ (Archived) South Africa's Thembi Kgatana v Chile in 2018 (photo: Carlos Figueroa Rojas, cc-by-sa) Fifa WWC: On a world scale, that place where we all live, there was an announcement by Gianni "Face In The Crowd" Infantino after the 2019 tournament. The 2023 prize money is going to be more than double.... as is the number of finalists no, that'd be silly, but the money thing is true: - http://keirradnedge.com/2019/08/06/...d-first-pledge-to-lift-womens-world-cup-cash/ (Archived) How much do you think the WWC prize money will be...?
Finland follows Norway with equal pay between men and women at national team level. Netherlands also have a similar deal ready on paper, but won't start until 2021, if I remember correctly.
Another team in turmoil – former Olympic competitors Zimbabwe left the 2020 Olympic qualifiers after players' protests at their games with Zambia. The 1st leg was hit by a boycott of training camp, because the ZIM team wasn't paid a promised $4400 each for their 3rd-place finish in Cosafa. With no preparation, Zimbabwe went by bus and lost 5-0. The return game was cancelled in surreal scenes in Harare, with the home team still unpaid and not attending. Despite the dead rubber, Zambia were disappointed not to play, because of their admiration for Zimbabwe's team. - "Mighty Warriors boycott camp ahead of Zambia Olympic qualifiers" (Archived) - "Zimbabwe's women boycott Olympic football qualifier against Zambia over unpaid fees" (Archived) How to solve the impasse? Maybe by the sports minister Kirsty Coventry going on Twitter, or the afternoon TV debate show The Couch asking this question to a lot of men The Couch | How important is Women's football in Zimbabwe? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEX_o7YOauU&t=31m16s (with studio guests More Moyo and Makomborero Mutimukulu)
Argentina has a pro women's league, for the first time, in the 2019/20 season. Some clubs have entered into it with enthusiasm, but can the federation make it work? FutbolElla posted 10 figures that will make all the difference: 191 FOOTBALL PLAYERS HALF A MILLION DOLLARS etcAlso says there's an Argentine soccer book called "Ovaries and Balls", buy it now. The first match after professionalization, a big win for Boca in the derby: Fanny Rodríguez (5-0) Boca Juniors vs River Plate - www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2dWNWJ2ApM And Jamaica's post-World Cup woes: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/jamaica-wnt-not-paid.2106118/
Trouble at the top – Thomas Dennerby resigns as Nigeria's manager: "Concerns grew over the Swede's desire to remain as manager after he cited that there were several breaches of his contract, including unpaid wages and a lack of co-operation from the federation." - https://www.givemesport.com/1513406-womens-sports-nigeria-womens-coach-thomas-dennerby-parts-ways-with-national-team (Archived) Dennerby wasn't at the recent qualifying matches, having returned to Sweden instead. Christopher Danjuma deputized during the losses.
(Jamaica's team in 2018) (Jamaica's team in 2019... locked out) Other recent news: Spain: a league on strike https://www.bigsoccer.com/posts/38251961 Israel's sport ministry is promising equal funding to men's and women's football this year - but will fund them by defunding other sports. https://www.dw.com/en/equal-pay-in-womens-football-israelis-win-fight-for-state-funding/a-50733774 (Archive) Fifa/WWC: Women's football will get more money than planned over the next 4 years, including an increase in World Cup players' bonuses. But will it help the countries further down the ladder? Reports by Forbes.com and AFP. 'The money will come from the organisation’s vast cash reserves of more than $2.7 billion. “We don’t need all this money in the Swiss banks, they have enough money,” said Infantino in July.' (Александр Вепрёв, cc-by-sa / Jericho, cc-by-sa)
Spain: The players have their collective agreement with the league, finally. (From the Spain thread, but it's a world news story ) It's... a win, I think! Not sure what scoreline. Maybe 3-2 or something. Can't believe it took such a prolonged fight to agree this: 14 months and 26 negotiations. In the end, the agreement covers a lot of things including contract renewal in case of maternity leave, and even specifies the length of work time for home games and away trips. Football: The key points of the women's football collective agreement rtve.es, Autotranslated / Spanish version (Archive) - Minimum pay of €16,000/year, a 40% increase - Part-time players get €12k - Bonuses for players leaving a club after 6 years - Retroactive to the start of 2019/20 season
Potentially significant development in the USWNT Equal Pay lawsuit: Late Tuesday, lawyers from USSF released a response to the USWNT that included blatantly and disgustingly misogynistic language. Tonight, after universal condemnation from just about everyone, USSF president Carlos Cordeiro has stepped down effective immediately, replaced by current USSF VP and former USWNT player Cindy Parlow Cone. Probably the biggest case of "stepping in it" that I've ever seen. Cordeiro obviously didn't write the response and maybe didn't even really look at it, but he certainly bears responsibility in whatever gets published. That said, I hope everyone directly responsible for writing that statement also gets unceremoniously fired.
They probably have very generous contracts that prevent firing. After all they are probably male lawyers and the probably practice what they preach. They think the women should be scre*ed and they also probably think that is all women are good for. Cindy Cone will, if at all possible, turn this around but, like I said elsewhere, she may have to recuse herself from any decisions related to the lawsuit because of her close affiliation with the WNT.
Clients can fire outside lawyers (i.e., lawyers who aren't the client's employees, which these aren't) whenever they want.
As the women's Bundesliga returns today, there was a really good and wide-ranging article when the German hall of fame opened, in October 2019: If you get these 3 generations of players in one room, with all their experiences, you're gonna get some insights... Women's football in Germany: Glass half empty or half full? https://www.dw.com/en/womens-football-in-germany-glass-half-empty-or-half-full/a-50832123 (Archive) Olympic champions Germany in 2016 - (Agência Brasília, cc-by)
Equal pay at National Team level, trying to keep track... Norway & Finland Netherlands reportedly will reach equal pay by 2023(?), a four-year process towards it. South Africa, Banyana were offered equal bonuses at Women's World Cup 2019 to the men's team at the AFCON, tho no long-term deal: https://www.enca.com/news/banyana-earn-equal-pay-world-cup-performance Joint WWC host countries, Australia and New Zealand, signed agreements with the teams in 2018 and 2019. Brazil: This was announced yesterday: Brazil gives equal pay to men's and women's national players www.bbc.com/sport/football/54007054 Hugely symbolic - the men's Seleção, the most famous team in football history, and the women's side will earn the same from the CBF. I suppose none of these deals are big money compared to the highs of club soccer, but fair treatment by national federations will lay the groundwork for clubs to become the next point in the debate. Brazil at the Copa América 2014 (Agencia de Noticias ANDES, cc-by-sa) Not to be outdone, Argentina has unveiled a 5-year plan 2021-25, to increase professionalism and youth soccer at its women's club teams.
Equal pay in Nepal, too, with a wage rise for female and male international players. The amounts are really small in world terms (though it's unusual that the FA published them at all), but maybe because the national teams aren't the players' full-time job - and the GDP per capita in Nepal is only 1/6th of Brazil's and 1/40th of Germany's. "'Nepal has been a patriarchal country for a long time,' said Nepal's all-time highest women's scorer Sabitra Bhandari. 'The decision has made us really happy.'" Bhandari: Flags and, er, Football Phenomenomenonemon (img by Nirmal Dulal, cc-by-sa)
Nearly a year to the day since the last post here.... The USWNT equal pay fight is finally over! https://theathletic.com/news/uswnt-...n-in-pay-discrimination-lawsuit/BXmnGmymxK4b/ The players on the lawsuit are getting direct compensation, and the in-progress CBA should equalize pay between the men and the women.
PATHETIC Trans Nzoia Falcons FC owner has decided to kick players out of the 'club house' after losing 3-0 to Vihiga Queens at home earlier today.It is reported that the players did not even have breakfast before the game against the defending champions.#WPL pic.twitter.com/IbcmPlVIvH— Ole Teya (@TeyaKevin) January 7, 2023
Canadian WNT/XNT players Christine Sinclair, Janine Beckie, Sophie Schmidt, and Quinn have agreed to testify in person on Mar. 9 in Ottawa before the Heritage Committee.MPs want to hear their views on Canada Soccer’s pay equity issues and drastic budget cuts in a World Cup year.— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) March 2, 2023 24h later... Canada Soccer: The following statement has been approved by both Canada Soccer and the Women’s National Team Players: Canada Soccer has announced that a deal in principle has been reached with the Women’s National Team Players on an interim funding agreement, for 2022. The terms of the interim agreement mirror a similar deal with the Men’s National Team Players that includes per-game incentives and results-based compensation. “This is about respect, this is about dignity, and this is about equalising the competitive environment in a world that is fundamentally unequal,” said Earl Cochrane, Canada Soccer’s General Secretary. “We have been consistent and public about the need to have fairness and equal pay be pillars of any new agreements with our players, and we are delivering on that today. While this is an important step forward, and it signals progress, there is still more work to do to ensure both of our national programs are given the necessary resources and supports to prepare and compete.” A new overarching collective bargaining agreement with both of our National Teams is still being negotiated. Therefore, the interim funding agreement with the Women’s National Team Players is subject to change on the basis of details included in the final collective bargaining agreement. With the principle terms of agreement now in place between Canada Soccer and the Women’s National Team Players, final details of the Interim Funding Agreement are being finalised by their respective legal counsel.