The different factors which affect a player's pay
The disparity in pay between men and women footballers is no secret. Former England captain Wayne Rooney is said to receive a staggering £300,000 a week whereas female counterpart Steph Houghton gets just £1,200. And we know why the gap is so big. Women’s football just doesn’t generate the same revenue that men’s does and the women’s game attracts nowhere near the same crowds. But how is a women’s pay determined compared to a men’s and what are the main factors which influence pay?
Let’s start with international football and the age old myth that men don’t get paid for representing their country. This is simply untrue. Men receive a match fee per game which many then choose to donate to charity. At the 2014 World Cup, England’s men were said to receive £2,500 each per game, with an additional sum added if they won the competition (however unlikely).
But what about England’s women? Football agent Jo Tongue represents a number of England players, including Claire Rafferty and Eni Aluko. She says the women’s team are paid through central contracts. “Because it [women’s football] was never professional, the girls that play for England, so 27 of them, get a contract which is £26,000 (a year) there or there abouts. The reason they brought that in was because girls weren’t being paid by their clubs. In America you don’t have a club contract you just have an international contract but that’s like £120,000 or £100,000 so there’s that disparity already.”
In terms of club football, the difference in pay between men and women is mainly down to the team’s ability, or in some cases inability, to invest in a women’s side. Jo says, “The big clubs, the clubs that have invested- so the City’s and the Chelsea’s- they can pay decent wage but the smaller clubs, so say Yeovil… are not going to bank roll the women’s team. They can barely afford to bank roll their own team.”
Jo admits that until clubs start investing in women’s teams, money won’t increase. “Man City and Chelsea have just made a decision to go right we are investing in this and they’ll probably lose money for five- ten, however many years but they’ve made a conscious decision to do that because it’s important to them.”
However, she concedes that many teams simply don’t have the required funds to invest in the women’s game. “Some clubs just aren’t owned by billionaires so can’t do it… it’s a bit like the Premier League where you’ve got your top six, and it’s very similar to that in the Women’s Super League. Watford decided they couldn’t afford to apply for a licence, I think Oxford did as well. Think how much money they’re losing in the men’s game and there’s all that money in the game. They’re going: we’ve got that other team to bank roll do we need to do it? Yeah you probably need to.”
