October 26 – UEFA has issued a breakdown of the prize money for the Women’s EURO 2022 to be held in England next summer, as well as more detail of the club benefits programme which will see clubs compensated for releasing players.
The women’s prize money has been doubled to €16 million but it still pales into significance when set against the €371 million prize money UEFA put up for the 2020 men’s Euros this year. The total prize money for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019 in France was $30 million.
UEFA still has a long way to go to match the men’s game on its continent where a number of its women’s teams are now being paid the same money by their national federations for representing their country as the men’s team.
UEFA also has a way to go to match FIFA’s World Cup money for the women’s game. With seven of the quarter finalists for the Women’s World Cup in 2019 coming from Europe, the feeling is that UEFA, and/or its commercial partners, have not quite stepped up to supporting the women’s game relative to their own resources.
UEFA says: “As a proportion of overall tournament revenue and costs, payments at Women’s EURO 2022 will be in line with, or even higher than, other women’s national team competitions. This places the new distribution model among the leading prize money schemes globally for women’s team sports.”
So the question is, does UEFA just want to be “in line”, or does UEFA want to break significant new ground?
What is significant regarding the women’s prize money is that it is an increase and that it will move up as it is driven by the increased commercial power of the women’s international game in Europe is increased. The global media performance and delivery of the Women’s Euro 2022 in England will be crucial to the pace of that growth.
Euro 2020 is also the first time that a club benefits programme has been introduced to compensate clubs for release of their players. Eligible clubs will be compensated at a rate of €500 per player per day, with payments distributed in October–December 2022. For each of its players taking part in the Women’s Euro, a club is guaranteed a minimum payment of €10,000. In total the amount paid to clubs will be about €4.5 million. For many women’s clubs this will be a significant amount of money. For top men’s teams it would be seen as chump change.
UEFA did emphasise its “determination to deliver on three ambitious objectives of its five-year strategy for the women’s game, Time for Action:
- Doubling the reach and value of the UEFA Women’s EURO and the UEFA Women’s Champions League
- Doubling the number of women and girls playing football in UEFA’s member associations to 2.5 million
- Changing perceptions of women’s football across Europe.”
Ultimately it will be the delivery of this ambition that will trigger more money into the women’s game. Build the base and the commercial partners will engage, and the growth of the women’s game will organically, and sustainably, support an enhanced commercial proposition.
For Euro 2022, 60% of the €16 million prize money will be distributed equally (€9.6 million) amongst the 16 participating nations (a guaranteed minimum of €600,000), while 40% will be distributed depending on performance.
In the group stage teams will also earn €100,000 for a win and €50,000 for a draw. Quarter finalists will receive €205,000 while semi-finalists will receive a further €320,000. The overall champions will receive €660,000 and the runners-up €420,000.
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