FA INVESTMENT IN THE WOMEN'S GAME?

Lewes Send The FA An Open Letter To Increase SSE Women's FA Cup Prize Money.
As we've all seen, Lewes have sent an open letter to The FA over increasing the prize fund for the SSE Women's FA Cup. Why has it stagnated at £252,000? 
When SSE became the Women's FA Cup sponsor in 2015, I posted my anger at the lack of investment in the competition compared to the men's equivalent. While the prize money has increased, so it has for the men's competitions, maintaining that gap. In the last four years, the total prize fund for the men's FA Cup has doubled from just over £15million to over £30million.

In that same time, the Women's FA Cup prize fund has quadrupled to £252,000. I said four years ago that the prize fund should be immediately increased to £1million with a gradual increase year on year to help develop the game at senior level. SSE's "multi-million" investment would allow that to happen. Eventually, we'd like to see parity with the men's game but, that's not viable at this time and will take time to achieve but, we need a starting point. In 2015, I also compared the prize funds with the FA Trophy and FA Vase competitions highlighting those cups for non-league and amateur teams received more money. This is still the case despite the top flight in the women's game, the WSL, now being fully professional. Where is the justification for this? 

England will host the 2021 Women's Euros and it will be a great spectacle that will peak people's interest in the game but, how can you expect to hold that interest without proper investment? I know The FA have ploughed millions into funding the elite game and in girls football but, what about the rest of it? There are women's teams folding every year in part, to one of the major problems we have in the women's game. Player retention. Not enough is being done to keep girls and women in the game. It's great that we have initiatives to get girls into football but, what are they supposed to do when they're too old for these initiatives? Send them packing? We need a strategy to keep women playing the game. One radical suggestion might be, to pay them, and pay them properly. The men can do it. I'm an absolutely rubbish footballer but, the opportunities have always been there for boys and men like me to forge some sort of career in non-league football that would pay me something I could live on. Why does that still not exist for girls and women today? There aren't even any signs of that happening any time soon.
I can't find anything that says The FA are now paying out prize money for the WSL or the Championship so, I'll assume they're not. Wait! What? A professional sports league NOT paying prize money? Really? Why? How? These are professional teams paying professional footballers! Are they expected to live off handouts from men's clubs and FA grants indefinitely? The fact that none of the women's leagues have sponsors indicates to me that The FA aren't doing enough to promote and grow the game. The men's game exists and thrives through sponsorships and massive TV deals. They couldn't pay their players on the revenue they generate through ticket sales alone. Why should the women be expected to make that happen for them? It cannot be done in the modern game. Sponsors aren't going to come in with decent amounts of cash without decent amounts of exposure. The FA should be doing more to get the game on TV and secure commercial sponsorship deals. They should be working with clubs on securing investment from outside sources so that they can be independently sustainable. The FA Cup is a perfect place to start as this money will be distributed to clubs at every level of the game. Paying prize money to the leagues they run would also help. 
Girls programmes are excellent but, no "gameplan for growth" can be successful unless those girl footballers become women footballers at some level. 
All England games, FA and Conti (league) Cup finals should be shown live on Freeview TV and, those clubs and players should be shown to be paid what they deserve to be paid. 
Of course, it's not just The FA. It's UEFA and FIFA that need to look at what they're doing for(to) the women's game. 

I started a petition in 2015 calling for The FA to increase Women's FA Cup prize Fund to £1million. It was not successful but, perhaps they'll listen now. Maybe?



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