Maximising Earnings

Congratulations to The Lionesses for their win in the Euros and for everything they’re doing for girls and women, not just in sport but in every area of life. And to the Welsh team who were participating for the first time in a major tournament. I’ve been struck by the amount of men throwing their toys out of the pram on social media at every mention of equal pay in football. Perhaps they’re missing the point here. The top earners in football historically have not always been about a direct relation with being the biggest, the strongest, the fastest, the most goals. For every Lionel Messi, surely the ‘best’ in most objective tests of what that means - goals, assists, trophies, etc, etc, there’s a player whose earnings are limited by external factors - nationality being the most obvious. A player belonging to a small nation Ryan Giggs was never able to achieve the deals outside the game that David Beckham did. Was Beckham anywhere near the best player of his generation in Britain? Probably not but he was adroit at maximising his earning potential outside the game as well as on the field. Wildly wealthy though he is in comparison with most of his peers, would Gareth Bale have been even wealthier if he’d been Italian or Spanish or English?

There’s now a great opportunity for some of The Lionesses to maximise their earnings outside the game by astute management as well as negotiating better contracts at club level. Think what Ilona Maher has done in the world of Rugby. Ilona isn’t even guaranteed a starting place in the USA XV but has become one of the most recognisable sports women internationally through her social media output and appearances on broadcast media. There’s a long way to go in achieving earning parity between male and female sports but The Lionesses have already blazed a trail for women and girls and they can continue to do so off the field as well as on.