Women's Euro 2022: UEFA announces tournament prize-money pot
UEFA has revealed that the prize money available at next year's Women's European Championship will be double that of its previous edition.
Next year's Women's European Championship will be the most lucrative yet, with UEFA revealing it is to double the prize money from the tournament's previous edition.
16m-euro prize pot at Euro 2022, UEFA confirms
European football's governing body has announced that Euro 2022, which is to be held in England, will see the 16 teams benefit from a 16-million-euro pot, up from the 8 million euros that was on offer at Euro 2017.
UEFA said its executive committee approved the "substantial increase" at a meeting in Chisinau, Moldova.
"The financial distribution will include increased guaranteed amounts and performance-based bonuses for the group stage," UEFA said in a statement on Thursday.
It added that European clubs whose players were involved in the tournament would also be financially compensated for the release of their stars, with 4.5 million euros being set aside for that purpose.
UEFA stated: "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."
Hosts Netherlands won the Euro 2017 title, beating Denmark in the final in Enschede.
UEFA's move comes at a time when FIFA is proposing introducing a Women's World Cup every two years, a concept that England's new head coach Sarina Wiegman this week described as "not very good for the players, for their welfare".
Women's prize money remains well below amounts on offer to men
The men's Euro 2020 tournament offered a prize fund of around 330 million euros, reports said. Despite UEFA ramping up investment, there remains a wide disparity between financial rewards at the men's and women's elite levels.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino promised in 2019 that the next Women's World Cup, in 2023, would see prize money at least double to 60 million US dollars. The men will play for 440 million US dollars at next year's World Cup in Qatar.