Revenue Disparity Explains Pay Disparity Between Soccer World Cup's Men And Women

By Mike Ozanian of Forbes.

"News today that France earned $38 million from FIFA for winning soccer's World Cup in Russia, while the women's champion in France this summer will earn just $4 million, has prompted outrage.

The total prize money for the Women's World Cup in France this July will be $30 million compared with total prize money of $440 million for the men's teams at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“The difference between the men’s and women’s prize money is ridiculous,” Tatjana Haenni, who oversaw women’s soccer for FIFA before stepping down in 2017, said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s really disappointing the gap between the men’s and women’s World Cups got bigger. It sends the wrong message.”

Nonsense. When viewed appropriately—based on how much money they generate—women actually make more than men.

As Dwight Jaynes pointed out four years ago after the U.S. women beat Japan to capture the World Cup in Vancouver, there is a big difference in the revenue available to pay the teams. The Women's World Cup brought in almost $73 million, of which the players got 13%. The 2010 men's World Cup in South Africa made almost $4 billion, of which 9% went to the players.

The men still pull the World Cup money wagon. The men's World Cup in Russia generated over $6 billion in revenue, with the participating teams sharing $400 million, less than 7% of revenue. Meanwhile, the Women's World Cup is expected to earn $131 million for the full four-year cycle 2019-22 and dole out $30 million to the participating teams.

The pay disparity is justified."

See A Popular Women’s World Cup Raises Pressure for More Prize Money by Rachel Bachman of The WSJ. It said 

"As in many sports, the sale of broadcast rights helps drive the value of the World Cup—along with everything from production quality and tournament promotion to prize money. FIFA generated $3.1 billion in broadcast-rights sales in the 2015-18 cycle, mostly from the World Cup.

But FIFA bundles the sale of the rights to the men’s and Women’s World Cups, making it difficult to discern the value of each tournament. The men’s World Cup is 61 years older, more popular and has a much larger reach.

The 2018 men’s World Cup drew a global audience of nearly 3.6 billion. The women’s tournament drew an estimated 1 billion, up 25% from 2015."