Africa: Why Isn’t FIFA Red Carding Africa’s Soccer Bodies Over Women’s Low Wages?
Written By Promise Joshua
Posted By Town Crier News Nigeria
Published By Fitness Network Communications
ith the Women’s World Cup launching this month, FIFA is still siding with corrupt national football federations over women players. Across Africa, wage theft for female players and rampant gender inequality continue to characterize the women’s game.
My national team, the Nigerian women—nicknamed the Super Falcons—are supposed to open the tournament playing host country Australia on July 20. But they are shockingly considering to boycott their first match after the squad were informed they won’t be paid tournament match bonuses, an essential part of their income.
From Nigeria to South Africa, female players are paid significantly less than their male counterparts, and have their wages stolen. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) still owes several female players their $1,500 allowance from the 2022 Women’s African Cup of Nations, a regional tournament. In South Africa, female players are paid one-tenth their male peers for the same 90 minutes of play.
Despite these violations of labor rights and non-discrimination rights, FIFA remains a spectator, sitting and watching as its associations violate women’s rights with impunity.
At the core of the human rights violations is the problem of unpaid wages. “Can you believe that we are still owed our bonuses?” exclaimed a female player of Nigeria’s Women’s National Football Team, three months after the 2022 WAFCON Championship, to The Punch .
In the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, each female Nigerian player was only paid half of the approximately $5,300 owed from previous international fixtures. In 2016, following their eighth-time win of the WAFCON championship, the NFF also owed each female player $23,650 .
Meanwhile national football federations receive a vast inflow of revenue towards the running costs of their national teams. As a member association of FIFA, the NFF receives up to $1 million annually from the FIFA Forward Programme to fund operating costs, including costs for the national teams. In addition, the Programme grants each member an extra contribution of up to $2 million specifically to cover the costs of projects to develop women’s football.
