FIFA Under Pressure To Pay Women's Soccer Teams Fairly

[SunSeeker]

The U.S. women's soccer team not only won the World Cup on Sunday -- it broke TV records. The tournament's final match was the most-watched soccer game ever, including men's games, on a single television network. More Americans watched the Women's World Cup final than the most recent NBA or Stanley Cup finals.

Yet FIFA paid the winning women's team a $2 million prize, which is four times less than the $8 million it pays men's teams that lose in the first round. The total payout for the Women’s World Cup this year is $15 million, while FIFA awarded a total of $576 million to men's teams in the World Cup last year.

Ultraviolet, a women's rights advocacy organization, started a digital campaign on Monday to press FIFA to pay women's soccer teams fairly for equal work. Roughly 60,000 people signed the campaign in the first 24 hours -- more than twice the signatures a typical Ultraviolet campaign receives on its first day.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7745892

[3catwoman3]

1. That is worse than...

...pathetic.

[SunSeeker]

2. I agree.

Here's the link for the petition:

http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/fifa_women_hp/?source=hp

[Travis_0004]

3. How do global revenues and global raitings compare?

This was the highest ratings ever in America, but what about on a global level.

Were raitings close to 900 million or so the mens world cup had?
Were revenues close to the 4 billion or so for the women's world cup.

[SunSeeker]

4. FIFA was happy to spend $27M on a film that earned $918.

FIFA paid to make "United Passions," the league's $27 million history film, which was almost universally panned and made only $918 (yes, less than $1,000) at the American box office.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/06/the-sad-gender-economics-of-the-womens-world-cup/

I don't think we have the worldwide numbers yet, but the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany lured in more than 400 million viewers worldwide, and that's with minimal coverage and no brackets (as also happened with the 2015 Women's World Cup). http://www.cjr.org/analysis/womens_world_cup_bracket.php

So even if just based on viewership, shouldn't the women have been paid 50% instead of 5% of what the men were paid?

For the U.S. national team's stunning 5-2win over Japan at the Women's World Cup on Sunday, a rout that made the Americans the first team ever to win three world championships, soccer's global governing body will award the team $2 million — about 5 percent of the $35 million FIFA gave to the German victors of last year's World Cup.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/06/the-sad-gender-economics-of-the-womens-world-cup/

[Starry Messenger]

5. Excellent point!

[Novara]

6. Women's cycling faces similar challenges

The race winnings are far less than the men's races and they have no TV exposure in the US. They fought like hell to get a one-day stage at the Tour de France last year. They have one day races here and there in other tours but they struggle for legitimacy in a male-dominated sport. Thing is, those women are so exciting to watch. But they can't get the support to increase exposure and they only get little crumbs tossed their way by being able to race their own one-day race in a men's tour now and again. They need a women's Tour de France. They have women's stage tours in Europe, but you'd never know about it here.

And there are still cretins who think women can't race for 21 days like men can, so they think a Tour de France for women is just too hard.

Bah!