Why the US Women's team will earn more from the men's World Cup than 2019 win
The US women's national football team will earn more from the men's World Cup than they did from their own title winning performances in 2019 and 2015.
USA's men are guaranteed $13m in prize money for managing to qualify for the knockout stages of the Qatar tournament after beating Iran 1-0 on Tuesday.
The men's win over Iran increased their World Cup prize money to approximately $380,000 for each player in the squad.That prize money will be shared equally between both the men's and women's teams under the equal pay agreement struck between US Soccer and the USWNT Player's Association earlier this year - with 10% of the total prize money going to the US Soccer Federation.
The $6.5m the women's national team will pick up is more than the total they won for their last two World Cup victories.
They managed to earn $4m for winning the 2019 World Cup and $2m for their title in 2015.
As of now, the prize money for the 2023 Women's World Cup has not been announced, but FIFA president Giannai Infantino said he wants it to be "at least double" the pot from 2019.
The money, even if doubled to $60m, would still be dwarfed by the $440m that will be given out to men's teams in Qatar.
When the equal pay deal was announced, Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of Sport Management at George Washington University, said: “If the (US) women continue to do better than the men, it’s not really hurting the men. Even though the men get more, the women can actually contribute just as much if they keep going.
"But it’s not always the same economics in other countries — those other countries where the men go further in the tournament and thus generate a larger prize pool. So obviously the economics of coupling that with women would probably be more significantly hurting the men than the women."
Under this year’s agreement the US men will get 50% of the US women’s prize money in 2023.
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