LOS ANGELES: US veteran Megan Rapinoe said the upcoming Women’s World Cup feels like a “paradigm shift” in the global business of women’s sports even as inequities persist.
The fight for equal pay by Rapinoe and her US teammates was a backdrop to their 2019 World Cup triumph in France, eventually resulting in a collective bargaining agreement with US Soccer that included equal prize money between the men’s and women’s national teams and more equal benefits in areas including accommodation and travel.
FIFA has guaranteed that every player at next month’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will earn at least US$30,000, with the winners taking home US$270,000.
At a US media day on Tuesday (Jun 27), Rapinoe said there was still work to be done to ensure the world’s best women footballers are properly compensated, but there’s no doubt that the Women’s World Cup has arrived as one of the top sporting events in the world.
“I think, just in general, women’s sports right now feels like we’re sort of out of just the dogged fight phase,” Rapinoe, who played on World Cup-winning teams in 2015 and 2019, said as the team gathered in California to begin final preparations for the tournament.
“It feels like a real opportunity to blow the lid off just in terms of fanfare and media and sponsorships and the sort of larger business around this sport.
“I think everyone is sort of hip to the game now and understands that this is not somewhere that’s just like, ‘Oh, we should cheer for the Women’s World Cup because that’s the right thing to do.’
“It is actually terrible business if you are not tuning in – you are missing out on a large cultural moment … this is the premier women’s sporting event in the world bar none and this is a paradigm shift globally, not just in the US.”
“IT’S INFURIATING”
Rapinoe acknowledged that progress didn’t mean there wasn’t “still work to be done”.
Canada’s women remain locked in a labour dispute with their federation, with captain Christine Sinclair saying last week she expected at least a temporary solution to be reached before the World Cup squad departed.