Club news
Written by: Joe
Lewes FC have campaigned for more FA Cup prize money for the women’s game for years – but our work is far from complete.
Did you know that a women’s team that wins in this weekend’s FA Cup first round will earn £6,000 in prize money. A victory for a men’s team at the equivalent stage of the competition earns… £45,000.
We don’t see how the Football Association, which pays its men’s and women’s England players the same money, can still overlook the inequality that casts a shadow over its men’s and women’s premier tournaments.
You earned how much!?
In the 2022/23 season, Lewes FC Women enjoyed a great FA Cup run into the quarterfinals, where we played Manchester United at the Dripping Pan. That match remains a seminal moment of Lewes FC’s history, as a fan-owned club went up against one of the giants of world football.
Yet these sort of cup runs are supposed to be historic, magical moments that help transform a club and leave a lasting legacy on the community.
Well, if this was the men’s competition our women would have made £450,000 for the club – a transformational amount to improve football for all in our community.
Instead, our women earned £51,250 in prize money.
These funds aren’t to be sniffed at, but they’re still a small slice of what the men get. Not quite the transformational impact for being one of only two Championship teams amongst the powerhouse WSL sides at that stage of the competition.
Let’s Even The Score
Lewes FC have been campaigning for equal FA Cup prize money since 2018. While we’ve successfully lobbied the FA to increase their overall prize fund for the Women’s FA Cup, it’s still a small proportion of what the men get.
The problem is, our operating costs, licensing requirements, wages, hospitality, electricity bills and everything else are exactly the same as a men’s team. So why do women’s teams still get less prize money while withstanding the same costs simply to exist?
£450,000 for a Women’s FA Cup quarter-final spot could totally transform a club like Lewes FC, not to mention scores of other clubs in our position.
In no particular order, areas we would aim to fund with prize money include:
• Invest in proper water and sanitation at our training pitch, ensuring we have a fit for purpose bathroom and changing facility – currently we have portaloos, and they are not the standard of excellence we aim to provide to our players, staff, foundation, and community.
• Invest in medical and sport science expertise, staff, equipment, and medical fund. Improve our injury prevention, diagnosis, rehab, and return-to-play timeline and programming. Strive to ensure our players have the best support possible to uphold the quality and longevity of their careers.
• Create a bursary to help players gain qualifications, skills, and work/life experience so they have access to jobs alongside playing football or they can prepare for a career after their playing days. Ensure we support our dual career programming for all our players.
• Provide professional development for staff to elevate their skills and grow in their careers – on and off the pitch – to ensure we have the expertise and skills around the club to always be improving and succession planning.
• Provide our volunteer coaches with more training and growth opportunities, raising the standards and quality of training and development environment for our youth talent in the area, creating a bigger pool of future Rooks.
• Fund a program where we can offer multi-season contracts to players and cultivate consistency, connection, loyalty, and enjoyment amongst our teams and our fans. Too many women’s players are on one-year contracts and spend the last four months of the season worrying about their next deal, missing the professional focus of the season they are in.
• Upgrade facilities in line with growing licensing criteria for competition in the league, and incorporate these facilities into the fabric of the community, ensuring our teams and communities have a facility to support their health, wellbeing, and performance.
• Use prize money as seed capital to launch a funding campaign for an additional training pitch to deliver more football to more community teams, ensuring everyone in Lewes can enjoy the life skills, health and mental benefits of community football.
This is the sort of thing you can do with equal prize money. Lewes FC and Dulwich compete for the right to enter the Women’s FA Cup second round on Sunday… and £6,000 in prize money too. Remember, if this were the men’s game there would be a significant £45,000 on the line.
How you can help
Want to help us do something about it? You can join Lewes FC in our fight for an #EqualFACup by doing the following:
• You can write to your MP by simply using our template towards the bottom of the page here: Equal FA Cup Campaign – Lewes Community Football Club
• You can spread the word online and raise awareness as to why this campaign is important. Download one of our social icons from the bottom of the page.
• We’d really appreciate you becoming an owner of Lewes FC, together we are stronger: Become an owner – Lewes Community Football Club