Yahoo News UEFA has doubled prize money for women's EURO 2022 football tournament
The governing body for European football announced on Thursday that it is doubling prize money for the upcoming women's EURO 2022 football championship - but it remains less than 5% of what men earn.
UEFA said the 16 teams qualified to take part in next year's tournament in England will share a total of €16 million, double the pot available at the last edition in 2017. The amount each team receives will be based on their performance in the competition.
A club benefits programme will meanwhile be introduced for the first time, making €4.5 million available to clubs that release their players for the competition.
"The increases in financial distributions and introduction of a club benefits programme are key strategic initiatives of UEFA's Women's Football Strategy — TimeForAction, ensuring that more money than ever before is distributed across the women's game," the body said in a statement.
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The 24 men's teams that participated in this summer's EURO competition split a cash pot of €371 million. Italy, which took home the trophy, also walked away with €34 million — more than double what the women's teams will share.
Clubs that released their players for the event received about €200 million.
UEFA also announced new solidarity payments for men's club competitions to ensure "greater financial solidarity to a wider spectrum of clubs who do not participate in UEFA club competitions for the 2021-2024 cycle".
This includes increased shares for all non-top fie associations (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France) and a reduced gap between associations with and without clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
UEFA expects that about €175 million will be made available to non-participating clubs, up from €130 million in the 2018-2021 cycle.
