EQUAL PRIZE MONEY WOULD KILL WOMEN’S CUP

FOR a club with such love for the women’s game, Lewes sometimes appear on a single-minded mission to kill it. Their latest proposal is for an end to the disparity in prize money for the men’s and women’s FA Cup. Lewes think the women’s prize fund, currently £309,355, should match the men’s £30.25million. And this would be a fine idea, if every club had the same economic and sporting structure as Lewes. They can deliver equal pay across their men’s and women’s teams because the men are in the Isthmian Premier League and the women are in the Championship. So the wage scale for both teams is between £100 and £250. If an elite club had to pay equally, economic reality would bite and the women’s team would cease to exist. It’s the same for the women’s FA Cup. On Sunday, West Ham played Arsenal in front of 959 people. Tottenham’s tie with Barnsley drew 621.

Even a Manchester derby, United at home to City, attracted just 1,948. So commercial revenues and television rights are pitched accordingly. If the women’s FA Cup had to pay close to 100 times its present prize money, quite simply, it would be scrapped. The FA could not afford to run it with a £30m prize fund and if they tried to balance out the two competitions — so £15.27m each for men and women — the men’s FA Cup would shrink ever closer to irrelevance in the minds of the elite and its commercial worth would collapse. As it stands, it remains the FA’s strongest revenue stream. FA Cup glory: Steph Houghton lifts the women’s trophy for Man City last season GETTY IMAGES

So this isn’t sexism, as Lewes imply, but logic. By failing to acknowledge their unique position and then using it to score cheap points from competitive rivals and the FA, Lewes are being cynically unreasonable. Their stance might help build their brand and its unique selling point, but their ideas would bring the progress of the women’s game to a halt by stretching benevolence to breaking point. The clubs and the FA are doing all they can to grow the women’s game but parity would be financially ruinous and every realistic observer understands that. The women’s FA Cup cannot even find a sponsor. Where is £30m going to come from?