Equal conditions in games for everyone.

Sergio Ferrari, from Bern, Switzerland - Underestimated until a few years ago, women's football is establishing itself at an accelerated pace. The European Championship currently being held in Switzerland could become a record-breaking edition. However, equality remains a long-term struggle in this sport as well.

Sixteen national teams from the continent will compete from July 2nd to 27th for the crown on the European stage. Some, like Spain, already have particular prestige because they won the last Women's World Cup in 2023. Others, like England, wear the crown from the previous European Championship (or EURO) in 2022. Also a major cheerleader, Germany, almost hegemonic at the continental level, with 8 of the 13 European Championship titles since the competition began in 1984 at the women's level, also has two world medals, in 2003 and 2007. Not forgetting Norway itself, a true reference for a long time in the specialty, with two continental awards and one world title to its credit. In the FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) women's ranking, Spain is in second place, behind the United States. Germany is third, just ahead of Brazil, while England is fifth. With Sweden in sixth and France in tenth, the Old World is hegemonic, for now, in the field of women's football.

Records explode

Switzerland has made its main stadiums available for this new European Championship. Basel, with more than 38 seats; the Wankdorf in Bern, which in the three matches it has already hosted has managed to gather 30 spectators in each; and those in Geneva and Zurich, slightly smaller than the one in the capital. Slightly smaller are those in St. Gallen, Lucerne, Zion, and Thun.

According to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), even before the start of the competition, around 600.000 tickets had already been sold – almost 90% of the total available – for the 31 matches. This is a record in the history of the competition, with particular significance given that Switzerland has fewer than 9 million inhabitants. This record shatters that of the previous EURO in England, with a population six times larger than that of the Alpine nation, and signifies a huge jump in attendance that seems to justify the policy of relatively "cheap" ticket prices, between 26 and 42 euros (30 and 49 dollars).

In line with this trend of increasing stadium attendance and television viewership worldwide, UEFA will distribute €41 million (US$48 million) this time, well above the €16 million (almost US$19 million) in 2022. Notable figures, yet only a shadow of the €330 million (US$386 million) that the same organization distributed last year among the 24 federations that participated in the last men's EURO in Germany.https://es.uefa.com/womenseuro/news/029a-1e17ead43748-3e2b92dee4ad-1000--record-de-premios-en-la-euro-femenina-de-la-uefa-2025/The €130 million ($152 million) that the European Championship will generate for UEFA will also represent a record. According to the Swiss newspaper New Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)This figure represents double the earnings of the previous tournament in England and ten times more than those of the 2017 edition in the Netherlands. The enthusiasm that the continental competition generates in the public is evident. On Sunday, July 6th, shortly before the match between Switzerland and Iceland in the city of Bern, the local fans staged a march through the historic center to the Wankdorf stadium, with more than 15 participants. This march also set a national record for this type of sport with a female focus. According to the NZZThese numbers demonstrate the popular interest in this international competition, something that doesn't happen when it comes to national leagues. "The Swiss Women's Super League," notes the newspaper. NZZ"It is in relative obscurity, practically ignored by the press and the public." An example of this was the last Swiss final, on May 17th, between the women's teams of Young Boys Bern and Grasshopper Zurich in the same stadium, with an audience of only 10 people. Just seven weeks later, around 30.000 people gathered there for the match in which the Swiss team defeated Iceland 2-0 in the group stage, eliminating them from the tournament.

Other times

Franziska Schild (47 years old) worked in the football sector of the Bern-Jura Regional Association and today manages the women's section of Young Boys in the capital, one of the most important clubs in the country. She played football at the highest level in her youth and was a member of the Swiss national team several times around 2000. In a recent interview with journalist Theodora Peter, published by the magazine Swiss PanoramaSchild recalls that at that time women's football was still very amateur: "They gave us [only] a train ticket for the trip and two pairs of football boots a year." On the other hand, the female football players wore the shirts that their male national team colleagues had already worn, which looked rather unflattering on their bodies, since specific shirts for female athletes did not yet exist. In those years, Schild remembers, women's football was sometimes ridiculed, "but we didn't care what people said; we just wanted to kick the ball."

The same Young Boys club, whose first women's team won the recent national championship, decided just ten years ago not to invest in women's football because it considered it unprofitable. Times, concepts, and strategies have changed rapidly, as evidenced by the club's decision to allocate 40 million francs (US$50 million), almost all of the profit obtained in 2024 from its participation in the Champions League, to the construction of a sports facility and center primarily for female football players and young people.

Just as happened in England with the multiplier effect of the European Championship in 2022, the Swiss Football Association (ASF) considers the current continental championship a springboard for the future to promote women's football. By 2027, it aims to double the number of female players of all ages, from 40 to 80, and intends to significantly increase the number of clubs, especially at the level of small towns and regions, that incorporate a special sector dedicated to women's football in their activity. Currently, women represent only 12% of the approximately 340 people of all ages and genders registered in numerous teams in the country. The ASF also seeks in the short and medium term to increase the number of female organizers, referees, and coaches throughout the country.

Equality, an outstanding task.

The European Championship being held in Switzerland brings together many of the most famous and highest-paid female players on the planet. Some of Europe's most prominent teams are supplying the squads that have arrived in Switzerland: Barcelona contributes 17 players, Bayern Munich 16, Juventus and Chelsea 14 each, while Arsenal and Eintracht Frankfurt "loan" 10 of their players.

Although it doesn't have truly official and up-to-date figures, last year the Spanish sports newspaper As I already mentioned Barcelona player Aitana Bonmatí, leading the continent's salaries with around one million euros per year (1,17 million dollars). Her compatriot and teammate, Alexia Putellas, earns 700 euros; Australian Sam Kerr, from Chelsea, 538 euros; English Keira Walsh, also from Chelsea, 457.000 euros; and Norwegian Ada Hegerberg, from Olympique Lyonnais and captain of her national team, 398.000 euros. These are numbers that seem enormous, but they are put into perspective in the big world of football business and the astronomical salaries of their male counterparts.

For example, the annual income of several Barça players, such as Robert Lewandowski, whose salary is around 33 million euros, while Frenkie De Jong's is 19 million, and that of the young star Lamin Yamal, 17 million shortly after turning eighteen. Even higher are the 55 million of Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr., or the 90 million of his teammate Kylian Mbappé.

Although it is nearly impossible to give exact figures and differentiate salaries from additional income, bonuses, and advertising contracts with large companies, the website The report of Statista, which retrieves information from ForbesIt is estimated that the total revenue of the ten highest-paid players in the world in the 2024-2025 season is around 840 million euros (approximately 983 million dollars). Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list, followed by Messi, Benzema, Mbappé, Neymar, Haaland, and Vinicius Jr.

Far from the tiny world of salaries enjoyed by female stars, and even further from that of male celebrities, the daily reality for thousands of female soccer players is quite different. As a FIFA report from March 2025 points out, the average annual salary for female players, considering all countries, is around €9.300 (US$10.900). However, this average doesn't take into account that just sixteen of the richest clubs in seven countries pay their players five times more than that, approximately €42.700 (US$50.000) per year each. In reality, the average salary for the vast majority of female players worldwide is €5.125 (around US$6.000) per year, and in many cases, even less.

Swiss stadiums packed with enthusiastic and motivated fans cannot hide several current contradictions in the world of football. The first, and most significant, is the enormous gap between the income of male stars and that of female celebrities (30, 40, even 50 times).

The second, essential point: the tremendously low salaries of the vast majority of the 13 million female soccer players worldwide.

The third, existential, perspective leads to a deeper reflection on the most equitable and logical model that should guide the accelerated development that women's football is experiencing in Europe and other regions of the world. If the compass for this growth consists, in the name of equality, of competing with men's football simply to conquer a larger share of the market, this will only increase the tendency of this sport to become a big business in the hands of a few. And in this scenario, the majority of the 13 million women registered with some team will continue, as they have done until now, with starvation wages.

Translation: Rose Lima