BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA -- Days out from the start of the Womenâs World Cup, teams are turning up the pressure on the sportâs governing body and spectators to give women players equal pay and respect.
An advertisement by telecoms company Orange and the French national team that uses visual effects to draw attention to the quality of the womenâs game is spreading quickly on social networks.
And on Monday, members of Australiaâs national team released their own video taking a swing at FIFAâs failure to grant women the same prize money as men.
Australia and New Zealand are co-hosting the tournament which kicks off Thursday as New Zealand takes on Norway at Eden Park.
The total prize pool for the womenâs tournament was raised to US$150 million this year, but itâs still only about a third of the US$440 million handed to the winners of last yearâs menâs World Cup in Qatar. The women players say itâs not enough.
FIFA has said itâs committed to closing the pay gap and last month that it said provides every Womenâs World Cup player with âguaranteed remuneration for their achievements.â
But by making the point that, despite the pay disparity, the women are just as skilful as the men.
TARGETING PERCEPTIONS
, Orange and French creative agency Marcel sought to overturn prejudices that âall too often surround the playersâ â that the womenâs game is less skilled and exciting than the menâs.
âMany football âfans,â without ever having watched womenâs football, have strong opinions about the level of the players,â according to trade journal Marketing Communication News.
For the Orange ad, producers scoured the French Football Federationâs archives for weeks to find technical moves by the French Womenâs National Team before searching for their âexact replicasâ during the menâs game.
The videos are cut together with dramatic music and screaming fans to give the impression of a male highlights reel.
At the end, itâs revealed that viewers have been watching members of the womenâs team.
The assumptions that womenâs sports are inferior to menâs, so are less deserving of investment and reward, has long been an issue perpetuated by misogynistic attitudes among some fans.
In 2022, a survey of 1,950 male football fans in the United Kingdom by Durham University found that âopenly misogynistic attitudesâ still dominate football fandom.
Those with misogynistic attitudes saw womenâs sport as inferior, and its coverage as âpositive discriminationâ or âPC nonsense,â
âSimply increasing the visibility of women is not enough to end sexism and misogyny in the sport,â she wrote. âWhat we need to reach equality and justice on the pitch and beyond is a gender revolution.â
MATILDAS CALL FOR EQUAL PRIZE MONEY
In their own video, the 23 members of the Australian Matildas squad list their predecessorsâ challenges and achievements in securing better working conditions, but say the jobâs not done yet.
âSeven hundred and thirty-six footballers have the honour of representing their countries on the biggest stage of this tournament. Yet many are still denied the basic right to organize and collectively bargain,â the players said in a video statement shared on Twitter.
âCollective bargaining has allowed us to ensure we navigate the same conditions as the Socceroos (the menâs team), with one exception. FIFA will still only offer women one-quarter as much prize money as men for the same achievement,â the players added.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino says the governing bodyâs âambitionâ is to offer equal prize money at the next World Cups in 2026 and 2027, but the Australian players want confirmation that itâs going to happen.
Last month, for the winning teams, along with payments for every athlete that takes part. Each player will receive at least $30,000 for making the group stage, with members of the winning team taking home $270,000 each.
FIFA says the payments will make a âmeaningful impactâ on the lives and careers of the players, while noting that the annual global salary of professional women footballers is around $14,000.
âBeyond this, all member associations will also receive a record financial distribution based on their performance, which they can use to reinvest back into football in their countries and which we believe will help to propel the womenâs game even further,â FIFA added.
In May, Infantino bemoaned the low offers being made for media rights to the tournament, saying âbroadcasters pay US$100 to US$200 million for the menâs FIFA World Cup, but they offer only US$1 to US$10 million for the FIFA Womenâs World Cup.â
At the time, he said offers were a âslap in the face of all the great FIFA Womenâs World Cup players and indeed of all women worldwide.â
The Matildas video pointed out how hard it is for players rising through the ranks to make a living.
âOur sisters in the elite womenâs are still pushing for sport to be a full-time career so that they donât have to work part-time jobs,â they said, calling on fans to support those players and the next generation of Matildas.
âWe call on those who run the game to work to provide opportunities for girls and women in football, whether that be players, coaches, administrators or officials,â they said.
âAnd we call on all those in positions of power across football, business and politics to come on this journey with us to make womenâs football as big as it can be here and around.â