FA announces ‘significant increase’ in Women’s FA Cup prize money from 2022-23

The Football Association has announced there will be a “significant increase” in prize money for the Women’s FA Cup next season as Aston Villa boss Carla Ward added to Emma Hayes’ criticism of the disparity between the current figures and those for the men’s competition.

The prize money for winning this season’s men’s FA Cup final is £1.8million, with £900,000 for the runners-up, while for the women’s it is £25,000 and £15,000.

Hayes, whose Chelsea side were the 2020-21 cup winners, was this week quoted by a number of national newspapers as saying the disparity was “completely unacceptable”, and Ward on Friday morning described it as “really disappointing” and “not OK”.

The matter had also come up during a Parliamentary debate on women’s football on Wednesday, with Alison McGovern, the MP for Wirral South, saying there was “absolutely no objective justification for that incredible disparity in prize money.”

Meanwhile, the group Women’s Football Fan Collective has been calling upon supporters to take part in a protest at this weekend’s fourth-round ties with chants in the 51st and 71st minutes of ‘no ifs, no buts, we want an equal FA Cup’.

On Friday afternoon, the FA released a statement that read: “The FA has had a clear plan for women’s football that has seen it become one of the biggest successes across sport in our country. The growth at all levels has been game-changing and we’re incredibly proud of the progress that we have led.

“To drive this growth we invested over £50 million into our initial ‘Gameplan for Growth’ strategy which doubled female participation, delivered professional and semi-professional women’s football and a successful England team.

“We built on this with even more investment in our ‘Inspiring