Sports

Soccer union steps up women’s pay fight before World Cup

Australia's soccer players' union has called on FIFA to almost double player payments for this month's Women's World Cup to end what it describes as discrimination against female footballers.

With the tournament kicking off on Saturday morning (AEST) when France meet South Korea and the Matildas set to face Italy in their first game, the Professional Footballers' Association wants the size of the player payment pool expanded from $US30 million to US$57 million.

John Didulica, the chief executive of the Australian union, which represents the Matildas, says the discrimination issue must be addressed speedily.

In a letter to Sarai Bareman, FIFA's chief officer for women's football, the PFA boss said:

Advertisement

''FIFA has persisted to award US$30 million to the participating teams in the FIFA Womens World Cup France 2019 despite such amount being only 7.5% of the amount awarded to the participating teams in the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018.

''It is clear that FIFA does not wish to substantively address this matter and certainly not in advance of the tournament…..the PFA expressly reserves the rights of the players to have this matter resolved through appropriate means including mediation and arbitration.

''There is no legal, economic or practical reason why this cannot occur after the tournament as the relief the players seek is economic.''

The issue of gender equity has been front and centre in the lead up to the World Cup.

Ada Hegerberg, the Norwegian star rated as the best player in the world, is boycotting the tournament to protest about the gap in pay, conditions, and the way women's soccer is treated in comparison with the men's game.

The French women's team were pushed out of their Clairefontaine training base last week to allow the men, the world champions, to prepare for a friendly against Bolivia on Sunday; the French women have been told they can return there on Thursday, but that is hardly ideal given their first game is the next day.

The US team has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation over unequal pay and treatment.

In October 2017 a Denmark v Sweden World Cup qualifier was called off because of a pay dispute involving the Danes while two years ago the Irish women's team also threatened strike action over shabby treatment.Read More – Source

[contf] [contfnew]

Australian Breaking News Headlines

[contfnewc] [contfnewc]

Related Articles

Back to top button