Lewes FC are reiterating their campaign for an Equal FA Cup ahead of this weekend’s Women’s FA Cup third-round fixtures – asking the FA Professional Game Board for a meeting to explain “why prize money inequality in the FA Cup is getting worse, not better”.
“Of the FA’s £30 million combined prize fund, £23.5 million now goes to the men’s competition and just £6.53 million to the women’s — a 78% vs 22% split,” the club said in a statement. “Lewes FC is asking a simple question: why did the FA worsen inequality in the prize money of our national competition, especially when doing so harms both women’s clubs and lower-league men’s clubs alike?”
Lewes face Crystal Palace in the third round this weekend, hosting the WSL2 side at the Dripping Pan, with the winners set to receive £35,000, the losers £9,000. By comparison, winners of a match in the men’s third round will receive £121,500, and losers £26,500.
They also say that the men’s competition prize pot has increased by £1.2 million this season, while the prize money available in each round of the women’s competition has remained unchanged (although overall the prize pot has increased due to funding a preliminary round).
“We are calling on the FA Professional Game Board — who decide prize money for both competitions — to explain why efforts to equalise prize money in men’s
and women’s football have stopped,” said a Lewes FC spokesperson in a statement.
About Lewes’ Equal FA Cup campaign
Lewes began their Equal FA Cup campaign in 2019, calling for equal investment in the women’s game by levelling FA Cup prize money.
It began with an open letter in February of that year in which they pointed out that the total FA Cup prize fund for men’s teams that season was £30.25 million compared to a total Women’s FA Cup prize fund of £250,000.
Those figures have changed, with the women’s competition now boosted to £6 million, but the men’s still receives £20 million.
The allocation of money has also been questioned, with forty per cent of the total prize money in the men’s competition given to the quarter-finals, semi-final and final, and more than half of the prize fund in the women’s competition being awarded for the fourth round onwards, when WSL teams come into the competition.
