A case for equal investment

Dispelling a myth in football

Women don’t bring in as much money as men to the game of football – so that’s why they don’t deserve equal investment in their side of the sport. 

How many times have you heard that? And where is that coming from? Let’s take a look into the game's history to dispel this myth. 

Wind back to World War I – a time that fundamentally altered life – and football – in England. Men who were working and playing football in their spare time were sent en masse to the front lines, leaving women to fill the jobs and the pitch. Women began working in factories across the nation and began forming teams in their new workplaces enabling the women’s game to flourish.  

But once the war ended and traditional gender roles returned, men hampered the growth of women’s football. A year after 53,000 descended on Liverpool’s Goodison Park to watch a women’s football match, an England women’s football attendance record held for over 90 years, the Football Association (FA) banned women from playing on FA grounds in December 1921. It would take five decades for the ban to lift. 

That’s 50 years the men’s game stood solely in the public light. Fifty years young people only saw men playing the game on tv and in headlines. 50 years only men had opportunities to play professionally in England. 50 years the men’s game had institutional support while the women’s game was left in the dark. 

It’s important context to give. Because now, another 50-odd years down the line, there’s pushback to investing in the men’s and women’s games equally. “The women’s game doesn’t bring in the same revenue, why should it get funded the same?” It’s an argument you’ll find across the internet. It’s one, though, that is void of history. 

The men’s game brings in more money because it has been invested in more since football began. If you have two plots of land and you only water, till, and nurture one of them for 50 years, then of course your crop output is going to be drastically different between the two areas. Of course, one ground is going to be more profitable than the other. 

It doesn’t indicate one has more potential or is inherently better than the other, it’s a reflection of decades of resource disparity. 

Expecting the forgotten land to compete with the one that has been drenched in light and nutrients is not a fair game. The same can be said about football. 

So instead of asking why the women’s game should be invested in the same if it doesn’t bring in the same, flip the question around. Why should the women’s game bring in the same if it isn’t invested in the same? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy to continue to underfund women’s football and then withhold resources from it because it doesn’t bring in the same as men’s football. 

Although many official bans have been lifted on the women’s game, lack of investment and institutional support persists. According to FIFPRO’s 2017 report, the first-ever global study of working conditions in women’s professional football, 50% of professional women players receive no pay and almost two-thirds of those who do earn money, net less than $600 per month. This reality forces many to pick up a second job instead of focusing solely on their craft and pushes countless out of the game early. Gender inequity persists in the early stages as well. Figures published by the FA last July indicate only 40% of secondary schools provided girls with the same access to football as boys in after-school clubs. 

The answer here isn’t to halt support for the men’s game. Just like the two plots of land, when they are both nurtured, they can perform their best. Having diverse plants increases soil nutrients and sets forests up to better withstand fires and torrential rain. 

Investing in the women’s game from the grassroots to the club level will enable football to reach its full potential. It will open up doors for countless young girls to play, forging the way for increased competition on the pitch and helping break down gender discrimination in and around football.  

The game has started to make important steps around the world. In 2019, AFC Ajax became the first Dutch club to guarantee the same minimum wage, holidays, health insurance, and loss of income insurance between women and men. Last month, the UK government pledged to meet the Lionesses' call to create equal access to sports in schools. And a few weeks ago, FIFA announced plans to equal prize money between the women’s and men’s tournaments by 2027. 

The women’s game is brimming with talent, selling out stadiums, and inspiring the next generation. Imagine where football could be with equal investment across the game - from the grassroots to the professional pitch.