Women’s football: equal pay for equal play ahead of European championships

The Netherlands is joining countries such as the US and Spain in paying women who play football for the national team the same amount of money as men. Dutch football governing body KNVB announced Monday that the new pay raise will go into effect July 1, days before the European Championship kicks off in England.

‘We are happy with this new agreement,’ said Jan Dirk van der Zee, who is responsible for the Dutch women’s team at KNVB. ‘We have worked hard towards this together and now it is a historic step for Dutch women’s football.’

Vivianne Miedema, the all-time top scorer of the Dutch women’s team, says she’s grateful to the KNVB. ‘It is not only nice recognition for us as a current group, it is an important social signal and we also hope that this will open doors for future Orange players.’

England, Norway and Brazil already have also equalised pay for men and women.

When US soccer officials decided to do the same earlier this year, US player Hope Solo noted discrepancies between bonuses and appearance fees between men and women, especially when the women’s team were the reigning world champions. Men ‘get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships,’ she said at the time.

The Dutch women’s team made it to the 2019 World Cup final—the last one played—only to lose to the US 2-0 and are defending European champions. The Oranjevrouwen (Orange women) will open their European campaign on July 9 against Sweden, also a favourite to win the title.