Earlier this month, FIFA banned the One Love armband, and now the governing body of soccer just went back on its word about paying players a portion of the World Cup prize pool. FIFA pledged to work toward equal pay for the women’s and men’s teams by the 2026 and 2027 World Cups, but even with that achievement in the distance, FIFA backed out on its original commitment to pay $30,000 to each player directly.
FIFA’s Original Commitment
In June, FIFA made a progressive step which many celebrated. This step was FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s promise that the players would get a portion of the WWC’s prize money directly. Before this promise, players would only receive some of the prize money if their federations agreed to give it to them. In other words, it was in each federation’s hands to pay their players.
In addition to this, the “new payment model,” as FIFA described it, would have guaranteed “support for every FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ team and player.” However, this support is out the window. This payment model aimed to give each player $30,000–$10,000 for each group stage match to begin with. Payment would gradually increase as each team progressed in the cup. It would then reach $270,000 for each player on the winning team.
In a…
