The Scottish FA shares the fundamental view of our women’s national team that equality should be at the heart of the development of the game at all levels. It is why we have been in ongoing dialogue with the women’s national team, their lawyers, advisors, and union representatives to continue to support the exponential growth of the women’s game and inspire future generations. In the interests of accuracy, it is important to clarify some facts arising from the latest statement issued by the SWNT.
First, no national team player, whether men’s or women’s, is paid to play for their country or receive “appearance fees”. International representation is and should always be regarded as a privilege and not a job, a view that we believed to be shared by all. We do not consider such fees to be in the spirit of playing for your country. Our Men’s and Women’s squads receive a per diem rate for their time with the national team, which has been exactly the same since 2017.
While other associations such as those named in the SWNT statement may choose to pay appearance fees, our men’s and women’s national team players are incentivised to qualify for major tournaments, from which the teams are paid the same percentage of prize money from the tournament organiser.
The squads are further remunerated in lieu of contractual media and/or promotional appearances for our national teams’ sponsors. Again, the Scottish FA has ensured that men’s and women’s players are paid the same amount for appearances involving designated official national teams’ sponsors.
As a result of ongoing dialogue, in September the Scottish FA sent a draft agreement to the SWNT’s advisers, which confirmed that all financial arrangements for the SWNT and SMNT would be the same – in addition to the existing equal payments for promotional appearances – but have to date received no substantive response.
Since the ticketing statement in April, there has been consistent dialogue between the SWNT senior players and senior members of the Scottish FA to ensure in-camp provision is appropriate for the SWNT players. No issues have been raised that have not been dealt with in that regard.
The Scottish FA will continue to invest more in the development of the girls’ and women’s game than the commercial income received. We have worked hard to increase broadcast revenues for SWNT games – a commitment within our Accelerate the Game strategy for the women’s game - and whilst the broadcast revenue gap is reducing, it is the principle reason disparity of earnings exist in men’s and women’s domestic and European leagues and competitions across Europe.
We remain committed to accelerating the growth of girls’ and women’s football at all levels.