Australians are living through a historic moment for women’s sport.
With unparalleled home crowds for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and record-breaking television ratings as the Matildas progress deeper into the tournament, the country’s interest has never been stronger.
This builds on the recent run of incredible sporting achievements by some of Australia’s most-loved national teams including the Australian Diamonds and Australian women’s cricket team.
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But with the sharp shift in viewership and public support, where are we at with the pay and prize money on offer at women’s sport’s flagship competitions?
All 23 members of the Matildas‘ World Cup squad have already secured a paycheque of at least $137,000 each for their contribution to Australia’s progression through to the quarter finals.
That figure will only increase if the team continues to advance through the bracket, culminating in $402,000 each for players in the winning team.
In a first at the tournament, FIFA will allocate players individual payments for their participation.
The governing body of football in each nation will also receive funding which they can use to cover World Cup-related costs or put towards domestic strategies.
For winning the tournament on home soil, Football Australia would stand to pocket over $6.5 million.
Overall, the $231 million prize pool from FIFA for the expanded 32-team tournament is more than five times the total $45 million shared between the 24 teams at the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
While this reflects the growth in the women’s game, the figure still falls well short of the total $440 million awarded by FIFA at last year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar.
This gender pay disparity can be illustrated through the Socceroos, who after being bundled out of the competition in the round of 16, still received over $19 million in prize money — more than the winner of this year’s Women’s World Cup.
An average of 3.56 million people tuned in to watch the Matildas move past Denmark on Monday night compared to 1.34 million viewers of the Socceroo 2-1 defeat to Argentina 2-1 last December. To be fair to the Socceroos, they weren’t playing in prime time, with last year’s men’s World Cup hosted in an unfriendly time zone in Qatar.
While the football example demonstrates the still significant gap in financial reward for the women versus the men, the gap is at least closing and the athletes are starting to make a good living.
The same can’t be said in netball, with Australia’s World Cup winning Diamonds a shocking yet timely contrast.
Having beaten England 61-45 to lift the trophy on Monday morning (AEST), the Diamonds got nothing more than glory for their efforts, with no prize money or bonuses paid.
World Netball, the sport’s international governing body, does not offer prize money for the quadrennial championship — which aside from the Commonwealth Games, is the sport’s showpiece event.
After extending the Diamonds’ existing collective player agreement and player contracts until after the World Cup amid a pay dispute with the players, Australia’s 12-women team is not entitled to any bonus payments based on performance.
With the win, Australia now holds every trophy available in netball — one of the nation’s most popular team sports — but our national representatives will get little more than the Super Netball league’s average $70,000 salary.
It’s a similar situation in cricket, however, change is imminent.
The Australian women’s cricket team collected $1.45 million for winning the T20 World Cup in February. This was bested by the England men’s team who were awarded $2.3 million for their corresponding feat last November.
But in the wake of the International Cricket Council’s announcement of equal pay, for the first time, both genders will receive equal prize money for their equivalent finishing position at comparable events.
This will come into effect for next year’s men’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the United States and women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
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