Progress update
December is now upon us and 'Equal pay for equal play' is progressing well. Six interviews have already been conducted with one more lined up and another in the pipeline. However, there have been some challenges along the way.
Interviews:
Here's the interviews which have been carried out:
-Joachim Walltin: Former Norwegian footballer and now head of the players' union in Norway. He explained how Norway's women achieved equal pay, highlighting the importance of the FA and the men's team in making it possible. You can read more here.
-CASE STUDY; Lewes FC:
The first team in the world to offer equal pay to it's women's team. I travelled to Lewes for their home match against Charlton Women and spoke to women's manager John Donoghue, long-serving player Tammy Waine and club director Charlie Dobres.
John explained how the introduction of equal pay has helped his players as well as discussing whether he thinks more clubs can adopt this approach. Tammy Waine spoke about the impact it has had from a players perspective and Charlie Dobres explained how it has financially been feasible. You can read Lewes FC: The club fighting for financial equality, here.
-FA; Marzena Bogdanowicz: Originally the FA weren't going to feature in this documentary but after consideration and hearing feedback I decided it would be insightful to see what they are doing to help improve the women's game. Marzena is the head of marketing for the women's game; she spoke to me about what the FA are doing to improve women's football and ultimately how these plans could increase pay.
-Rob Wilson: Rob is one of the countries leading football finance experts. He spoke to me about what he thinks needs to happen in order for women to be paid more money and whether things like ticket prices need to be improved in order to increase pay.
Interviews coming up:
Over the coming weeks I have lined up one more interview and am still trying to secure one other.
-Stacey Allaster: After Billie-Jean King was unavailable for an interview I turned my attention Stacey. She is the Chief Executive of the United States Tennis Association and former head of the Women's Tennis Association. Stacey was instrumental in securing pay in a number of tennis grand slams and I will be asking her how this was achieved and whether the same approach can be adopted for football.
Strengths and challenges:
Strengths:
-I have managed to secure some big names for the documentary who have added real insight and perspective. The strength of the interviews will help me when it comes to editing, structuring and writing the script for the documentary.
Challenges:
-It has been a struggle to secure an interview with a football agent but I am hopeful of securing one in the coming weeks. I have contacted a few and will continue to pursue further interviewees.
Next step:
-In the coming weeks, I will start to structure the documentary, write the script and begin the editing process. Stay tuned for further updates!
