June 14, 2022 was not another day for Spanish women’s football. Both the players, the president of the Federation and the soccer players’ union agreed on this. “It’s a historic day,” cataloged it Irene Paredes, the first captain of the team. “It is a very important day”, defined Luis Rubiales, the president of the RFEF. “It represents a turning point and a step forward,” confirmed Amanda Gutiérrez, from the Futpro union, entirely dedicated to women’s soccer.
Federation and soccer players reached a historic agreement regarding the increase in the percentage of bonuses and image rights that the Spanish internationals will receive. Those are the only incomes that exist now in the absolute selection of Spain, unlike other countries in which it is done with a salary or even diets -in Spain they were used only for them but they are eliminated with this new pact- when they are summoned the soccer players.
The pact covers the next five years, until 2027, so it will cover the next two European Championships (22 and 25) and the next two World Cups (23 and 27) and, Spain qualifies, also the 2024 Paris Games. “Our work is rewarded and valued”, explained the Barcelona defender Paredes. “It’s an avant-garde agreement,” Rubiales puffed out. “It equalizes the conditions between the men’s and women’s teams,” reveals Gutiérrez.
Therefore, the players summoned by Luis Enrique and the soccer players mentioned by Jorge Vilda will receive a similar percentage of the prizes won in the tournaments and the sponsorships that the Federation has. Although that does not mean that they will charge the same, as it happens in the United States, New Zealand or Norway and as they ask in Canada. Because neither the prizes distributed by UEFA and FIFA are far from the same in both cases and because the sponsors still do not invest the same money.
Rubiales himself confirmed it. “The money that reaches the female categories is much lower than the money that reaches the boys,” he revealed. In this sense, the president of the RFEF highlighted that “a corrective factor of positive discrimination has been introduced in the percentage of premiums. Both parties thought it appropriate. And percentage-wise, women benefit the most”, he explained.
It also substantially increases the percentage that soccer players receive from now on from image rights. Especially because in 2018, when Luis Rubiales became president of the Federation, it was null. “Soccer players in recent decades have always enjoyed this compensation for image rights. In 2018 we saw that the girls did not and we wanted to put an end to this, ”he recalled.
In the 2019 European Championship they already had a payment for the first time in that section. “That amount begins to improve from this year and retroactively. It improves 20% and the increase will reach 80% in 2027”, he specified. In addition, a special prize for image rights is maintained after qualifying for a final phase.
Of each new sponsorship signed by the Federation, the soccer players will have their percentage. And travel conditions will also be improved. “It is difficult to find such a complete agreement and one that has improved so much,” insisted Rubiales, who with the signing is up to date with what is required in the new Sports Law. “It reinforces the Federation’s commitment to the women’s team and to the players,” applauded Irene Paredes, 22 days before the start of the European Championship in England.
