A thought on women’s football.
Ana | Nov 17, 2008 | Comments 2
I was talking to a friend last week about something that deeply bugs me: Why is women’s football so depreciated? We’ve seen some great matches during the Women’s World Cup in China. Yet, once that was over, the noise was sushed and will only revive in 4 years. That’s bad. It got me thinking into the entire women’s football system and how little attention or money these girls get.
Women’s players are the most committed athletes out there. They play a sport that gives them almost nothing in return. They find happiness simply in the fact that they are playing football. Something way different from some male players who are more interested in their big fat paychecks than actually delivering on the pitch.
Money is a big issue, one cannot ever deny it. What impresses is that a lot of women playing out there (especially in Brazil) take home a paycheck so little that it cannot even be compared to a male player playing for 3rd division (sadly, one of the reasons why I did not want to go professional). It’s a revolting situation! Yet the ladies still deliver amazing football on the pitch even though they cannot, by any means, sustain a family, buy expensive cars, or expensive anything.
Difficult situation.
Let’s just compare for a minute. Kaká was 2007’s best player of the year. So was Marta, for the ladies. Kaká’s salary is around 12 millions Euros per year. Marta’s is around 360 thousand. What a brutal difference!
Women’s football is growing, however, compared to 10 years ago. But at this pace it will take a long, long time until it has an impact even close to that of men’s footy. Clubs need to stop with fake promises and actually work on a plan to boost their women’s teams. The marketing has to be different and the efforts need to stop being just words. Efforts need to turn into actions.
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This is revolting!
hihi
I dropped into this site just by google-ing Marta. I was wondering the same thing. How much does the best women football player in the world get paid. Well I have to say that I thought she had less then that. Because 360.000 EUR is a great salary. The men´s salaries have just grown beyond normal. But the thing is that they get paid depending on how many people watch the sport. I come from Iceland wich has always had the strongest man in the world. A country with a population of 300.000 and we have had 2 guys that have one the title many times. And we almost have a competitor from our country every year. In Iceland these guys have to work alot with their practicing and still they are among the best. They don´t get paid anything for what they do but still they do it. Sports salaries will always depend on the interest of the puplic so I think this will never change.
sincerely,
Sveinn Óskar