Ada Hegerberg is the best female soccer player in the world in 2018. The Norwegian is not a national player at this point in time. A year earlier she had resigned in a dispute with the Norwegian association – it was about the payment and appreciation of the women’s selection.
Hegerberg is back at the European Football Championship, which is currently taking place in England. Norway was the first football association in the world to equalize its payments for the male and female national teams, and the kickers even waived part of their bonuses.
Hegerberg symbolizes a worldwide debate about equal pay in sport, which is currently also being vehemently conducted in Germany. Most recently, Chancellor Olaf Scholz even intervened and demanded equal payment on Twitter: “It’s 2022. Women and men should be paid equally. This also applies to sport, especially national teams.”
Germany – Finland
07/16/2022 | 9:00 p.m
He received support from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who is also responsible for sports in her office. “Yes, I agree with the Chancellor,” said Faeser in an interview with RTL. “Those who do the same job” should “be paid the same,” said the SPD politician.
DFB director Oliver Bierhoff had already suggested a conversation with Scholz and said he wanted to explain the chancellor “a little better about the numbers”. Scholz is ready for a conversation.
National player Lena Lattwein reported in London on Thursday that the Chancellor’s tweet was “briefly discussed in the team because it was simply very surprising. It’s always easy to say something like that without having the insight into how the payments are made. That’s completely understandable,” said the 22-year-old from VfL Wolfsburg. The topic is very complex, and Bierhoff has already answered. “For us, this tweet is by no means negative, it has a rather positive effect,” said Lattwein about Scholz’s statement.
In the debate, colleague Alexandra Popp referred to the higher income for men. “For us, the most important thing is that we have professional conditions and good seats,” said the 31-year-old from “Bild”. “It has to be said that we don’t earn the same sums as the men. But when I see how our ratings are developing, then things are going in a very good direction.”
National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg made a similar statement to Popp. “It is also true that the marketing revenues of men and women, which also result in tournament bonuses, are extremely far apart. Unfortunately, that’s still a fact,” she told the “Bild”. The German men’s national team recently generated a plus of more than 40 million euros through marketing. For women, there was a minus of 1.5 million.
Changing these imbalances – and thus also the payouts in the long term – is exactly what the footballers want: more visibility, more attractive TV transmission times, better marketing, more support right down to the base and, above all, professional conditions. The players themselves do a lot for this in public relations.
The national coach wants a basic salary for all Bundesliga players. This was recently initiated by national player Lina Magull. “We footballers should earn so well from the 2nd league that nobody has to work part-time anymore. We’re talking about a minimum salary of 2000, 3000 euros per month. This is how you can sustainably advance the development of women’s football,” said the offensive player from FC Bayern Munich in an interview with “Bild”.
The DFB is trying to get women to pay more appropriately and has at least offered a record bonus at the European Championship: 60,000 euros each go to the players for the title in England (the German players would have received 400,000 euros each for the title in 2021). According to a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency, 67 percent of Germans are in favor of equal pay for the national teams. Only 18 percent are against it.
Other nations are already ahead. In Switzerland, for example, the performance bonuses are to be adjusted to 100 percent by 2024. Corresponding announcements were also made by the Spanish association and the European champions, the Netherlands.
The English Football Association (FA) pays women’s and men’s teams the same entry and victory bonus – but not in major tournaments, because there the international associations pay out disproportionately more money to men.
In addition to Norway, the US team led by Megan Rapinoe is considered to be a pioneer in the equal pay debate. The successful Americans had filed a class action lawsuit against the association for discrimination – and enforced that they receive the same prize money at major tournaments.
That’s not planned for the DFB – and no player is publicly asking for it. “It’s not possible for women to get 400,000 euros for a title. No association in Europe can afford that as long as men’s football is the number one sport that outshines everything else,” explains Voss-Tecklenburg.
07/17/2022 | 13:00 ‘O clock
