Foul play Shame of football’s gender pay gap
Majority of elite players paid less than £18,000 Nine out of 10 consider quitting over finances
The massive scale of gender inequality in football has been exposed in the biggest survey ever conducted, which found that 88 per cent of players in the Women’s Super League, the top tier in England, earn under £18,000 a year and 58 per cent of the competition’s players are considering quitting for financial reasons. Worldwide, half of all top division players get no pay at all.
The wide-ranging report by Fifpro, the World Players’ Union, which represents 60,000 players globally, paints a damning portrait of life for Women’s Super League players beyond the competition’s ‘big three’ clubs of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
It throws down a gauntlet to the game’s authorities to ensure women professionals get a better deal – with the Football Association yesterday releasing details of its Super League restructuring, which it said would address some of the issues.
The report – which surveyed 3,500 Fifpro members – reveals that only 1 per cent of players in the Super League are mothers, suggesting that clubs do not do enough to support those who have or who would like to have children.
It “shows how football has fallen far behind other sectors of society when it comes to gender equality,” said Theo van Seggelen, the general secretary of Fifpro, and Caroline Jonsson, head of Fifpro women’s football committee. “Much work still needs to be done to ensure female players are given the same rights as other workers. The bottom line is that we must pave the way for decent and secure jobs for women as professional footballers.” The report finds that:
90 per cent of professional female players worldwide are considering ending football careers early
Only 9.4 per cent of female players globally are aged 29 and over, compared to 22.4 per cent of male players.
87 per cent of Super League players surveyed do not have a retirement fund
26 per cent of Super League players said their clubs do not cover their football expenses
Just 2 per cent of all active players worldwide are mothers, while only 3 per cent of clubs have creche facilities.
Only 1 per cent of Super League player are mothers – while the Professional Footballers’ Association was unable to supply any figure, it is believed the proportion of male players who have children is many times that.
In England, many Super League players expressed huge concerns over the pay and support they received in the league. In an interview in conjunction with the report, a former England youth international, now playing in the Super League, says that only at the leading three clubs is a professional career genuinely possible. The player trains four or five days a week but receives no salary or travel expenses, meaning she makes a significant loss from her football career, which she juggles with a part-time job.
According to the player, even those who are paid at the club earn between £250 and £1,500 per month. In the men’s Premier League the average monthly salary is now more than £200,000.
Throughout the Super League, the report finds that 11 per cent of players still have no written contracts with their clubs. In addition, 88 per cent of players surveyed had no health insurance scheme paid for by their teams, and 61 per cent do not get any gym membership included in their contracts.
“It is hardly surprising that such a large proportion of English women’s Super League players would consider quitting purely for financial reasons,” said Barbara Keeley MP, the co-chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Women’s Sport and Fitness.
The early retirement of female players, in large part for financial reasons, remains a huge issue in the sport. Fifpro believes that almost all female players leave the game after having children. In the Women’s Super League, 55 per cent of players say they are considering quitting to start a family, suggesting they do not believe that the current climate allows them to combine playing with being a parent.
The report also highlights vast disparities between the treatment of male and female footballers globally. When surveyed by Fifpro, 40.1 per cent of female national-team players declared themselves “not satisfied at all” with tournament prize money in continental or global tournaments.
The FA’S head of women’s football, Baroness Campbell, said that the Super League was “a baby” compared to the elite male game. She said that growing commercial and broadcast revenues were vital to closing the gender gap, and added that the FA was taking action to ensure the current generation of female players were equipped for life after football. However, a spokesperson for Women in Football said: “This research shows, once again, that for many women football is still not a viable career path despite being our national sport.