On Sunday, the U.S. women's national soccer team (USWNT), which boasts the likes of Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan as players, lost their chance at a third consecutive win at the Women's World Cup.
The team got knocked off of the international soccer championship after a nail-biting, long-winded game against Sweden, where no team scored any goals in the 120-minute game, taking them to penalties, at which point Sweden won 5-4.
Now, with the loss came not only heartbreak for the U.S. team, and a farewell at a third consecutive win, but the million-dollar prize too, an amount that has been steadily increasing since their 2015 and 2019 wins.
There are two governing bodies that determine how much teams and players get paid for their role in the World Cup.
First, the USWNT has a contract with U.S. Soccer, which determines how much USWNT players get paid for their international soccer duties, and that includes national championships, World Cups, the Olympics, and some public appearances. The bonuses they offer players for their performance have historically been somewhat based on FIFA's prize money.
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Then there's FIFA, which is responsible for awarding money to each competing team in the Women's World Cup, and that money is then distributed among varying federations, such as U.S. Soccer, and they can then distribute all or a portion of the money to the players.
© GettyFor this year's Women's World Cup – the final game is slated for August 20th – FIFA is offering a total of $152 million in prize money, with $49 million going directly to individual players.
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Players like Rapinoe and her teammates can earn up to $30,000 for their participation alone, while each member of the winning team is expected to earn $270,000.
© GettyThe available prize money in 2023 is a huge increase from recent years, and comes after continued protests from women's teams around the world demanding equal pay to their male counterparts.
In 2019, when team USA won against France, the total prize money allocated for the championship's duration was $30 million ($122 million less than this year's total pot), with the winning team taking home $4 million of those funds. In 2015 it was a $15 million total, and the U.S. took home $2 million after their win against Japan.
Still, whether it's 2015, 2019, or 2023, all prizes are much, much less than those allocated to the Men's World Cup. A CNN analysis earlier this year found that players on this year's Women's World Cup, despite the historic prize total, will nonetheless on average earn just 25 cents for every dollar earned by men at their World Cup last year, their total prize money having been $440 million.
FIFA has previously maintained it hopes to reach equal pay by the men's and women's World Cups in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
