‘Why it’s time for women’s FA Cup prize money to be same as men’s’

Everyone is hoping that with a good wind, they can make it all the way to Wembley this weekend because the women’s FA Cup second round is taking place. Can’t we just dream?

Lewes Football Club, which I am currently the director of, became the first and only professional or semi-professional club in the nation to support its men’s and women’s teams equally in 2017.

Our women’s team has since experienced greater support, matching their higher league position, thanks to the Football Association’s central grants and commercial revenue shares. Moving from an equity-focused position to one that is Equality FC.

We have also been campaigning for equal FA Cup prize money for both women’s and men’s competitions since 2019. This is not a catchphrase, but rather a strategy.

The FA Cup needs to catch up with the fairytale if it truly is, as it claims to be, “the game’s great leveller.”

A victory in the second round of the FA Cup is worth £79,500 for a men’s club. For the women it is just £8, 000 – a £71, 500 difference.

The difference is £41, 750 in the first round, and £86, 500 in the third round. Same game, the same rules, the same competition, the same governing body, but with a different emphasis on the players.

Let’s avoid using the common justifications: “commercial reality,” “revenue difference,” “it’s complicated.”

No, it’s not. The prize pool for both competitions is determined by the FA. Tomorrow they could be equal, it’s just that you need to want to do it.

By focusing on broadcast revenues and crowd sizes, it is simply too easy and lazy to ignore the demand for equality as some people do. Yes, men’s TV rights are currently worth more, and there are higher attendance rates for men’s matches.

However, the FA does not participate in gate receipts, making the discussion of equal prize money irrelevant. There is ultimately no valid justification for maintaining unequal prize funds because the FA is publicly committed to redistribution.

The FA has previously chosen to ignore our requests for clarification and dialogue, but has recently gotten more accommodating.

Ironically, the FA is aware of how to “do equality.” The same match fees and bonuses have been paid to the women’s and men’s England teams since 2020. The St George’s Park policy is based on the adage “equal pay for equal performance.”

So, is it not important whether the FA supports equality. That belief is halted by the FA Cup, though.

This season’s men’s competition has a total prize pot of £23.5 million, while the women’s prize pot is £6.14 million. Is the FA basically telling women and girls that they are not as valuable as their male counterparts?

The Lewes FC campaign calls for a more equitable division in the men’s competition in addition to promoting equality between the women’s and men’s competitions.

The £23.5 million men’s prize fund will currently go to wealthy Premier League clubs where it is unlikely to have a significant impact. Small clubs would benefit more from a more equitable distribution of the rewards across the pyramid, helping them survive and prosper rather than just aiming to fill the highlights reel once a year.

Football’s finances are incredibly risky and becoming increasingly dangerous, as I now only know now, so here is a quick and efficient way to ensure that prize money is distributed more evenly and fairly. Our full proposal can be found at equalfacup.com.

Women’s football was denied decades of development, investment, and, most importantly, the building of the cultural capital that is so essential to the success of the men’s game: the ingraining of football into our daily lives. The ban lasted for 50 years.

This is a reminder of what football stands for, not a protest against it. The premise of the FA Cup was that any team could win, and that Wembley-based teams were equally important.

Equalizing FA Cup prize money is a single, straightforward, and transformative step because the FA wants the women’s game to stand on its own two feet. Giving out prizes in the same way is not charity; rather, it is a form of honoring performance.