‘The players are feeling very empowered’

England’s Lucy Bronze says the squad feel “very empowered” after writing a joint statement criticising the Football Association over the lack of a performance-related bonus deal for the Lionesses at the Women’s World Cup, and insists the matter won’t distract them from their bid for glory on the pitch.

Speaking in Brisbane the morning after releasing an unprecedented joint statement – signed by all 25 players in the squad, including the two players on standby – on the eve of the tournament, Barcelona right-back Bronze said the Lionesses squad were fighting for progress not just for themselves, but for everyone in the women’s game, and that this is not about equal pay.

The 31-year-old also says the debate isn’t merely about finances, saying: “It’s the principle of what we want to improve in women’s football. Whether that’s commercially, or on or off the pitch, whether that’s performance-based, it’s [about] being rewarded for the things you have done. We are the European Champions. We have changed the game massively in England so we want everything to fall in line.”

England’s statement on Tuesday said they were “disappointed” a deal had not been reached, but said they will be putting negotiations on hold to be revisited after the tournament ends.

Via Fifa, this Women’s World Cup will see players from every competing nation receive bonuses centrally for the first time, with the amounts ranging from $270,000 (£206,000) for each player on the winning team to $30,000 (£23,000) for individuals who are eliminated at the group stage.

That deal represents a major increase on previous editions of the tournament, with total prize money of $110 million (£84.39 million) significantly higher than the $30 million (£23 million) pot at the 2019 World Cup – though it falls some way short of the $440 million (£337.55 million) from the men’s Qatar World Cup.

The disagreement between the England players and the FA centres around the players wanting a bonus structure specifically from the FA, separate to the Fifa deal, and is understood to involve debate around other matters too, including what restrictions, if any, are to be placed on the players’ promotion of personal commercial deals on their social media channels in future.

Responding to the players’ joint statement, prior to Bronze’s comments, an FA spokeswoman told Telegraph Sport: “We are fully focused on supporting the Lionesses at the World Cup and, as they have said, we will continue discussions after the tournament.”

Bronze, who along with her teammates will face Haiti in the Lionesses’ Group D opener on Saturday, added: “I think the players are feeling very empowered. I think it’s the first time as a player group we’ve actually ever sent the message out ourselves, that we’ve collectively done together. In that respect it’s a very empowered player group last night and this morning, and these past few weeks.”

Asked if she was confident the matter wouldn’t be a distraction from their goals on the pitch, Bronze replied: “I’m 100 per cent confident that we will not be distracted by this. Every single one of our players is fully focused on playing in the games and playing great football. If you were to come and watch training, the level of intensity that we have on the pitch is probably second to none right now.

“These conversations happen regularly, they’re probably just not in the media. They happened before the Euros and I don’t think it distracted us then because we went on and won it. There’s many things that fall under the name of female footballers and I think we’re fully capable of managing that ourselves. We have a great group of girls that are able to share the load and make sure that we’re all focused on what our aim, and that is to get to the World Cup final.”

The Professional Footballers’ Association have been providing support to the squad during their talks with the FA, and on Tuesday night the chief executive of the PFA, Maheta Molango, the chief executive of the PFA, said it is “a massive mistake to underestimate the genuine strength of player feeling on these issues” about the bonuses and commercial arrangements.

However, Bronze stopped short of threatening strike action, when asked how far the team were prepared to go, adding: “I don’t think we made any threats as players, I think we’re quite well spoken. And we know how to kind of stand our ground – I can’t say the conversations ever got to be that heated.

“We’ve set out bullet points of what we want to achieve as a team, how we can help change the game. I think we are in a more fortunate position than many other nations because we kind of have a good relationship with our federation where we’re able to openly speak to them and challenge them – they challenge us and we challenge them to improve our game.

“I think that’s one of the fortunate things –  that we play for a nation like England, where we know that we are capable of making change, so we can push and push. Because as much as we want to make changes as players, we know that the federation wants to make those changes as well.

“I’m pretty sure that we’ll find solutions. And I’ll never get to the point that potentially other teams have – to go down that kind of [strike] route.”

Bronze also wants to help drive change in other nations, adding: “We’re not only doing this for ourselves, we’re doing it so that we can set a standard.

“It’s something that we’ve seen in the US team for many years. I know when we speak we’ll be like ‘Why are the USA doing this or doing that’, because they’ve set the standard or an expectation of what you can do in women’s football and what it brings.

“It’s unfortunate that it has come before the World Cup, but at the same time, it’s because the World Cup gives us the big stage. It’s when people want to listen to us, it’s when things really matter.

“It’s about finding a solution that works for both of us, that we can both be striving to make the game better and better.”

Bronze added that the debate is not about equal pay, and pay parity with the male counterparts at England is not something they are asking for, continuing: “The equal pay with the men’s (teams) is kind of a different topic because I think it’s bigger and completely different both in terms of the Fifa prize money, and in terms of England as a federation.

“We do have contact with our England men’s team, which again is really nice that we have a good camaraderie between the teams and a good relationship. Equally they want to drive the change in the game just as much as us, which is nice.

“But we’re trying to set a trail for what women’s football should look like in our country. It doesn’t necessarily need to mirror the men’s image.

“The kind of great thing about women’s football is that it is developing constantly and we actually have the opportunity to mould that into shape into the way that we want it to be. And the players are having a kind of a huge say in that which I think is really important.”

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