Chancellor Olaf Scholz joins the “Equal Pay” movement in football, but the DFB is putting the brakes on it. President Bernd Neuendorf would like to talk about everything, including the bonus system, which manifests an immense gap between the men’s and women’s national teams.
DFB President Bernd Neuendorf has announced a debate in the German Football Association about aligning the bonuses for the women’s national team with the payments for the men. “I am at least willing to talk to the representatives of the senior national teams in our committees about whether our bonus system, which has grown over decades, is still up to date (…) and whether it can also be adjusted if necessary,” said Neuendorf in Frankfurt/ Main after a round of talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. However, it must also be “acknowledged that, despite the same activity, the markets are still very different”. After the Scholz request, DFB director Oliver Bierhoff repeatedly referred to the much higher income of the men’s team.
SPD politician Scholz said after the tour of the new DFB campus: “I think it’s something political, so it makes sense to discuss equal bonuses.” During the women’s European Championship in England, the Chancellor got involved in the discussion and called for equal pay for men and women in the national teams via Twitter.
The DFB women each received EUR 30,000 for their second place after losing the Wembley final against England on 31 July. There would have been 60,000 euros for the title. The men would each have received prize money of 400,000 euros if they triumphed at the 2021 European Championship. For women, the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will take place from July 20 to August 20, 2023. Neuendorf emphasized that the DFB was “by no means backwards” on this issue and referred to the record bonuses for women that were suspended this year.
National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg did not want to join Chancellor Scholz’s demand. “I have to disagree with the Chancellor. We said we want to have ‘Equal Play’ first, that we have better structures, that we have talent equity, that all girls can play football,” said the 54-year-old at ” Today in the stadium” on Bayern 1. Your first approach would be “that we can turn all Bundesliga players into professionals, which means basic salaries in the league. But not an “equal pay” in the men’s dimension,” Voss-Tecklenburg continued.
“I would like to see an equalization, maybe a little less for men and a little more for women,” emphasized Voss-Tecklenburg again. “Maybe someday for the same title that men and women achieve, also the same money. But we will never get to the dimension of men’s football. And that would not be good either.”
In May, the US soccer team, led by star player Megan Rapinoe, won their fight for equality. The Soccer Association of the United States and the unions of the women’s and men’s national teams agreed on a historic collective agreement that guarantees all players the same pay including bonuses, as the association US Soccer announced.
According to this, the contracts running until 2028 ensure that the women’s national team, which is many times more successful than the men, receives the same bonus payments at major tournaments such as world championships and generally the same salaries as the men’s team. The association also distributes part of its income from broadcasts, ticket sales and sponsorship equally to both teams.
