By Nick Butler

Prize money for the FIFA Women's World Cup, the draw for which took place at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau earlier this month, will be higher than ever before ©AFP/Getty ImagesPrize money for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup winners has doubled, while the total prize pot has increased by 50 per cent, it has been announced.


The winners of the quadrennial event, taking place in Canada between June 6 and July 5, will receive $2 million (£1.3 million/€1.6 million), in comparison with the $1 million (£650,000/€800,000) allocated to 2011 World Cup winners, Japan.

A total of $15 million (£9.5 million/€12 million) in prize money will be the full value on offer, up from $10 million (£6.5 million/€8 million) four years ago.

This comes as FIFA, like many other sports bodies, are keen to be seen as increasing gender equality, a key message reiterated in the International Olympic Committee's recent Agenda 2020 reform process, which has already led to more female and mixed gender events being pioneered across a myriad of different sports.

In football, this has been seen by attempts to raise the profile of the Women's World Cup, as well as key players and events therein.

This was shown by a wonder-goal scored by Ireland's Stephanie Roche for Peamount United being included in FIFA's Goal of the Year competition alongside strikes by male superstars James Rodríguez and Robin Van Persie.

Japan celebrate winning the 2011 World Cup in Germany. They had far lower prize money than the winners will receive next year ©Getty ImagesJapan celebrate winning the 2011 World Cup in Germany. They had far lower prize money than the winners will receive next year ©Getty Images



But, with prize money for this summer's men's FIFA World Cup in Brazil topping $576 million (£368 million/€470 million), with $35 million (£22 million/€28 million) alone allocated to winners Germany, there remains a huge gap.

This was something admitted by FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, who has said that women cannot expect to be paid the same as their male counterparts for many World Cups to come.

"The comparison between the prize money of the men's World Cup in Brazil to the women's World Cup in Canada, that's not even a question I will answer because it is nonsense," he said.

"We played 30th [Men's] World Cup in 2014 and we are playing the seventh women's World Cup, so things can grow step-by-step.

"We are still another 23 World Cups before potentially women should receive the same amount as men.

"The World Cup pays for all the 20 World Cups FIFA organizes, the under-17, under-20 men and women, club football, beach soccer all is financed by the men's World Cup which brings directly $4.5 billion (£2.8 billion/€3.68 billion) to FIFA."