Football is the most watched sport in the world, with the Men’s 2018 World Cup final garnering over 1.1 billion viewers over the course of the 90 minutes as reported by Statista (https://www.statista.com/chart/16875/super-bowl-viewership-vs-world-cup-final/), and the Women’s 2019 World Cup final attracted 263.62 million viewers overall as reported by Forbes. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanaglass/2019/10/21/fifa-womens-world-cup-breaks-viewership-records/?sh=2212ec771884)
Equal pay in football has always been a topic of conversation among all figures in the sport, from fans and players to managers and club executives. But why is this the case? To further investigate this topic, we conducted a survey that asks the public what their thoughts on the subject matter is.
51.5% of participants were male, with 48.5% being female. 7.4% of participants don’t watch any sports and 44.1% of participants watch football once a week or more. Despite this, only 29.4% of the public claimed to have a good understanding of football wages. We asked the public about their opinions on the average wage in the Male and Female English Premier Leagues, and they are shown in the graphics below:
As shown by the data collated, most people believe that Male footballers earn a reasonable amount, but that Female footballers earn too little.
82.4% of participants were not surprised by the size of Cristiano Ronaldo’s reported wage. He repaid his 15 million transfer fee in the 24 hours after his official announcement.
After revealing the revenue earned in TV deals from the Male and Female Champions League competitions (below) on top of the previous statistics, 65.7% of people do not think that Men and Women should be paid equally.
The money generated by Men’s football is much greater than Women’s football in terms of wages, TV deals, competition winnings and even sponsorship deals. As reported by Goal (https://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/how-much-prize-money-champions-league-2020-21-winners-get/1hkpcgs22bt851tusgowvd71rn), the winning team of the 2021 Champions League Final won €19 million (£16 million), and as reported by DAZN (https://www.dazn.com/en-GB/news/soccer/how-much-prize-money-do-the-uefa-womens-champions-league-winners-get/5z29tmqultvd1id4v3uodamt6), the winners of the Women’s Champions League the same year won €460,000 (£391,000).
Attendance at games, National and International broadcasting rights and sponsorship deals are the 3 main sources of income for football clubs, which in turn affects the wages that players earn. They all come down to one deciding factor: Popularity. The reason Men’s football is more successful in generating revenue is simply because more people are interested in watching their games. This is often attributed to the fact that Men’s football has had time to grow and develop into the entertainment giant that it is today, as the first Men’s World Cup was held in 1930 as the sport started to gain popularity at the turn of the 20th century. The first Women’s World Cup was held in 1991, despite there being a rise in popularity of Women’s football games in the early 20th century. Sexism and a lack of equal rights stopped Women’s association football from taking off until the latter parts of the century.
Circling back to our survey, participants were given a chance to express how they felt about the subject matter. Most people felt similarly, in that they think that the pay gap is because there is a higher interest and demand for male football. One individual said: “A massive contributor to this debate is demand. The demand for men's football is so much greater, more are willing to pay for it.” Another participant shared similar views: “In an ideal world, both men and women would be paid the same, but the simple fact is that women’s football just doesn’t bring in anywhere near the same amount of money as men’s football.”
However, some participants felt that female football leagues are not given enough exposure as one participant said: “I think more needs to be done to give female football leagues the visibility that the male leagues receive.”
With time, women’s football leagues will grow and generate higher revenues, as the aforementioned UEFA Champions League TV deal worth $32 million over 4 years is a record in Women’s European football, as reported by Varsity (https://www.varsity.co.uk/sport/21449#:~:text=On%2022nd%20March%202021%2C%20it,in%20women's%20football%20to%20date.). The sport is growing, though it is not close to the popularity and financial success of Men’s football yet.
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