Lewes FC release proposals to equalise men and women’s FA Cup prize money

Lewes FC have released proposals to equalise the funding for the men and women’s FA Cup.

The proposals follow the announcement that the total prize money for the Women’s FA Cup will increase to £3 million next season, an almost tenfold increase from the £428,915 fund made available for this season’s tournament.

The FA also announced a “disproportionate” amount will be invested into the early rounds, allowing teams further down the pyramid to feel the benefit of the rise.

Discussions on how the money is allocated will now begin. Lewes FC, the only football team in the world to pay its men and women’s sides equally, have welcomed the increase in prize money, but have urged the FA to go even further.

Having spent the past year talking and listening to fans and clubs around the country on the current FA Cup prize money distribution, Lewes FC have distilled these discussions into two detailed proposals.

These two proposals are based on four guiding principles – equality or equity between men’s and women’s teams in the FA Cup, distributing prize funds to where they are most needed, creating a transparent and public mechanism for how prize funds are allocated, and no requirement for additional spend from the FA.

This takes the total current prize fund for both men and women, and allocates an equal base amount to every fixture played, across every round.

There are then two weighting variables. The first weights the prize money differently according to the each round, as is traditional. The further a team goes in the competition, the more the prize money increases.

The second is a simple but transparent 75-25 split between what the winner and loser receive.

This means that, from now on, no matter how many teams enter the