SUPER Falcons players will each leave the Women’s World Cup at least $30,000 richer following a new FIFA financial plan.
The tournament is taking place in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20 with Nigeria one of 24 teams competing for the trophy.
Each player at the tournament will be guaranteed at least $30,000 after a ground-breaking move by FIFA to disburse some of the prize money to individuals rather than football associations, Reuters reported last night.
All 23 members of the winning team will receive $270,000, part of a $110 million total prize pool, which is around 300 percent higher than what FIFA offered for the last tournament in 2019, which the United States of America won.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino had pledged at the FIFA Congress in March that organisers would pay some of the prize money directly to the players, a first for the women’s tournament.
This move by FIFA will enormously please Nigeria’s national team players who have often had problems retrieving their allowances and bonuses from the Nigeria Football Federation.
For the upcoming Women’s World Cup, member associations will also receive increased funding based on performance, with winners receiving $4.29m and delegations earning $1.56m for participating in the group stage, Reuters added.
Compared to the men’s World Cup where $440 million total prize was awarded, the total performance-based prize for women is still significantly lower, but the progress is appreciated by the players union FIFPRO.
In a statement, FIFPRO said: “This represents not only the outcome of tremendous global collective action by 150 national team players… but a constructive negotiation with FIFA over the past months.
“The have listened to the voice of the players and we have taken steps toward greater gender equity in our game at the highest levels.”
FIFA instructed football federations to reinvest the funds paid to them in their footballing activities, including coaching staff, grassroots projects, youth national teams and women’s football capacity-building programmes.
