Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall urges focus of equal pay debate in football to move from 'top of the game'

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall has asked for the debate around pay in women's football to shift from "the top of the game".

A conversation around equal pay in football was sparked by the appointment of Emma Hayes as manager of the United States women's team.

Hayes is said to be set to earn the same amount as the manager of the men's national team, Gregg Berhalter, which is a reported annual salary of £1.3 million. This will make her the highest-paid female manager in the world.

In contrast, there is a significant disparity in the earnings of England's national team managers. Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman is on a reported annual salary of £400,000, while that of men’s team manager Gareth Southgate is thought to be between £5m and £6m per year.

"Equal pay for same roles is important," Southgate said, when asked about the disparity before England's UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier against Malta. "There’s lots of economics behind that.

"For example if you’re a CEO of a company and you’re male and a female it should be exactly the same. In football the criteria depends on what the income is of the team.

"A League One manager wouldn’t get the same as a Premier League [manager]. A Premier League footballer would get more than a Championship footballer.

"I think with the US women’s team, they have huge economic power and success over a long time. It’s probably a closer alignment between what the female and men’s teams generate.

"Whether that’s translatable for clubs or other national federations is an interesting debate to have."

Speaking in a press conference in the lead up to Arsenal’s Women’s Super League encounter against Brighton on Sunday, Eidevall agreed with Southgate's comments, but pointed out that there needed to be more focus on the entire women's football pyramid when it came to pay.

"Gareth Southgate struck the balance very well with what we all feel is right in principle, but what might be the problem from a market perspective," he said. "I don’t think what is necessary when we start talking about equal pay is that the gap needs to be addressed at the very top of the game.

"We still have a situation - and the PFA has done a really good job highlighting it - of what the reality is for players in the WSL.

"Me speaking about this being the most competitive season ever [is one thing], we still know there are a lot of players in the league - not at Arsenal - who still struggle to get their whole life around playing WSL football.

"That is a big problem when we’re trying to build the league."

The WSL has been professional since the 2018/19 season, while the Championship is still semi-professional.

The average salary of a WSL player is reportedly £47,000 per year, but some players earn as little as £20,000 a year.

Women’s football is moving towards parity in other areas, such as the FA Cup. The FA recently doubled the prize fund for the women's tournament, but the boost only comes into effect from the third round onwards, and the total amount is still far from what is given out in the men’s competition.

"We had the discussion about the FA Cup the other week and saying 'we increased prize money, the gap is still very big over here'," Eidevall said. “It's good there was an increase, but is it good enough?

"Where does the FA want that competition to go in the future? Do they see that can be an equal distribution, for example about prize money?

"They want to put that prize on equality in football as a driving force, or do they just say that what money we bring in is what we're going to distribute and 'let the market decide'.

"It's not an easy question and it's not an easy answer for it but I think we're making a mistake if we're only looking at the top of the game, I think there are lots of things to do at other parts of the game as well."

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