After their monumental Euro 2022 win over the weekend, England football fans, old and new, are shocked over the prize money that the Lionesses will earn compared to their male counterparts.
The women's team ended England's 56-year wait for a major trophy by claiming a first tournament win since 1966.
The win also served as a major inspiration for young girls across the UK, encouraging them to pursue their interest in sport.
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However, while the fans came out in their thousands to support the lionesses, and the media coverage across the tournament was explosive, the championship sparked a major conversation among fans about female football players' pay.
In 2020, the Football Association confirmed that the women who play for England are paid the same amount of money as men for each appearance: reportedly a total of £2,000 per match.
Despite this, the take-home earnings between male and female players differs massively thanks to UEFA.
While UEFA doubled the total prize money for the Women's Euros to €16 million (£13.7m) - to be distributed across all teams - it doesn't look like much to the men's Euro 2020 total prizepot of €371 million (£310m).
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For winning not only the final, but every group stage of the Euros 2022, the Lionesses will walk away with a prize of €1.55 million (£1.3m).
This amounts to a bonus of £55,000 for each individual team member for winning in the final.
While the players are about to get hold of a life-changing sum of money, it's only a small percentage of what the men's team would have received if they had won the 2020 Euros.
If the England men's team had won the Euro 2020 final against Italy, they would have taken home €34 million (£29.25 m).
Players are reported to take a 40 percent cut of those winnings, meaning that all 26 players would have walked away with about £9.5 million each.
Since the Lions lost out to Italy in the 2020 final, they instead went home with a total sum of €29.8 million (£25.3m) in prize money - almost double the entire prizepot offered to the women's teams this year.
Realising the stark pay gap between the women's and men's teams, Lioness fans took to Twitter to call for change.
Shocked to learn just how much the #Lionesses earn… their win bonus compared to men is just a joke! Time to level up!
— Kelly Hoppen CBE (@kellyhoppen) August 1, 2022
Allegedly the #lionesses were on a winners bonus of £55 K a player. this time last year the men were on £1 million a player winners bonus …..and didn’t win ❓
— Geoffrey Myers (@geoffreyMyers1) August 1, 2022
Just a cheery reminder that the total bonus prize pot for #Lionesses is £1.3m. If England’s men had won last year’s Euros it would have been £5m
— Claire Cohen (@clairecohen) July 31, 2022
Well done & congratulations #Lionesses just a shame they only receive £55k for winning + a % squad bonus. Equality?
— Dave (@dave2482) July 31, 2022
Commenting on future changes to her team's wages following their Euros victory, football finance expert Kieran told ITV: "I think in terms of profile, this is a fantastic fillip for a game that has been growing for quite a few years.
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"It will give opportunities to expand interest in the game, increase attendances and there's already talk of a number of very high profile sponsorship arrangements between the WSL and commercial partners.
"However, women's football is seeking a different demographic in terms of the supporter fanbase so I don't think we'll anticipate equal pay, equal attendances and equal money coming in compared to the men's game."
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