Women’s football has caught up – also in terms of bonuses. Austria’s national players will still receive significantly lower payments than their male colleagues at their continental tournament last year at the European Championship that opens next Wednesday in Manchester against hosts England. Although UEFA has doubled its payout at the Women’s European Championship to 16 million euros, the entry fee for each association is “only” 600,000 euros. At the men’s EURO it was 9.25 million per team.
Financially, the women’s EURO is in all probability a negative business for the Austrian Football Association. According to ÖFB Managing Director Bernhard Neuhold, the costs for the tournament are in the seven-figure range – the three-week preparation period at home is not even included.
“The bottom line is a deficit. That’s not a lamentation, it’s a fact,” explained Neuhold. The breakeven point would be reached at the earliest after reaching the semi-finals. “Even if there is no money left, we want to pay out bonuses as a sign of appreciation,” emphasized Neuhold – “much higher” than at the EM 2017 in the Netherlands, where Dominik Thalhammer’s protégés wrote a summer fairy tale and sensationally finished the round of the reached the last four.
“There is no cake to be divided,” said Neuhold, head of ÖFB-Wirtschaftsbetriebe GmbH. “The men have this cake.” At the EURO 2021, UEFA – with 24 instead of 16 participants – increased the prize money 20 times (a total of 331 million euros).
“Despite the deficit, we are willing to invest in the product with full conviction,” said Neuhold. The quality of the preparation and the team quarters as well as the size of the support staff have been significantly improved compared to 2017.
“We have to be realistic”
Financially, however, the women are still lagging behind their male ÖFB colleagues. This is not the case in all countries. In the USA, for example, the national players obtained equal pay by way of a court settlement. But the “marketing component” is different there, Neuhold knows. And in Europe too – Switzerland, for example, recently excelled here with sponsor-financed, equally high, success-related EM bonuses for men and women – the approach is too different to be comparable.
Source: Nachrichten
