Gianni Infantino the president of FIFA could make no guarantees today that the member federations will distribute the $30,000 payments promised to every player at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
He said at a news conference ahead of the tournament opener that he’s engaging with member federations on the issue.
Infantino said , “We are moving of course in the right direction, we have been consulting with associations, with players, to try to go in the right path,” but we have an association of associations, so whatever payments we do, we will go through the associations and then the associations will, of course, make the relevant payments to their own players, we are in touch with all the associations.”
Infantino said there are complications including residency and taxation that are best handled by federations.
FIFA had previously confirmed that the 732 players participating in the World Cup will be paid at least $30,000 each.
The pay cheque rises if teams do well, with each player for the winning team earning $270,000.
The payment is significant for many players: the average annual salary worldwide for women who play professionally is $14,000.
FIFA’s agreement means that half of the total World Cup prize money fund of $110 million will be paid to the players in the 32 teams.
The prize pool is more than three times the $30 million prize fund FIFA paid out at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.