‘A few Lionesses will get everything’: the pay gap in women’s football

Last month, football agent Jo Tongue arranged for a female player to transfer to a second-tier English side, only for the club to offer her a full-time salary of £21,000 – less than many male Premier League players earn in a week.

Even this is an improvement on where the sport used to be. For Tongue, one of the biggest triumphs of England’s run to the Euro 2022 final has been that companies no longer ask her players to make corporate appearances for free: “I had got very used to hearing ‘There’s no fee.’ That’s the main change.”

This is the reality of women’s football in England today. A small group of top players in the national team, nicknamed the Lionesses, are on the brink of becoming household names and making substantial sums of money, with sold-out stadiums and enormous television audiences set to watch them take on Germany in the final of Euro 2022 on Sunday.

Lucy Bronze has already signed sponsorship deals with Nike and Visa, while captain Leah Williamson has signed up with fashion house Gucci. Every England player is reportedly in line for a bonus of £55,000 if they win the tournament on Sunday – with further, life-changing sums available through potential endorsement deals.

But for the rest of the professional game there is the perennial fear that interest in women’s football will wane once the tournament is over, crowds won’t turn up to domestic league matches and there will be another false dawn.

“It’s not wonderful there is that disparity,” said Tongue. “There are a few Lionesses who will get everything because brands can be slightly lazy.”

Yet this time she has hope there really is a shift in attitudes towards embracing the wider world of women’s football, with her management agency overwhelmed with