Gender inequality in football: Huge prize money difference earns eves’ World Cup disrepute

Paris, Dec 8: It was just a few months ago that the men's World Cup in football was held with much fanfare in Russia and it was France who had the last laugh as they beat a spirited Croatia 4-2 in the final to lift their second title. The event was special not only from the perspective of sports but also politically since it was held on the soil of the West's enemy.

On Saturday, the draw of the eighth edition of the women's World Cup will take place at La Seine Musicale, an arts centre in Paris, the capital of France. The current world champions in the men's football will host the edition next year between June 7 and July 7 and 52 matches will be played across nine cities to determine the world's best women's football team.

Unlike their male counterparts, American women start as favourites in the tournament. Ranked the world's top team in women's football, the US are also the defending champions and another title in France will take their tally of World Cups to four in eight editions, something which no other nation could match as of now.

However, though women's football too has caught attention in recent times, questions have been raised over the sea of difference in the prize money offered to the female footballers in a World Cup compared to their male counterparts.

In 2015, the US received a prize money of $2 million for winning the women's World Cup while Germany, who won the men's World Cup in Brazil the previous year, bagged a prize money of $35 million. Almost 12 times more!

The prize money for the women's tournament in 2019 has been doubled to $4 million but yet that that is peanuts compared to what the men's team took home after winning the World Cup in Russia -- $38 million (though less than 10 times more but that is more about arithmetic). The prize money for the women's tournament has also been made from $15 million in 2015 to $30 million in 2019. In the men's World Cup held in Russia this June-July, the overall prize money was $400 million.