Women's European Championship 2025: Hype, reality and the gap to the men

Women's European Championship 2025: Hype, reality and the gap to the men

The 14th European women's European Championship started in Switzerland today. The tournament is followed by many fan groups with great anticipation, but there is a shock for the Austrian national team: it does not take part in the competition. Nevertheless, there is a ray of hope, because Amina Gutschi, a referee assistant from Vorarlberg, is represented. In the discussion about the favorites on the title, Spain, England and Germany are traded hot.

Despite the growing interest in women's football, the economic reality remains challenging. Loud Laola1 is the women's European Men's football clearly noticeable.

prize money: a big jump, but still afterwards

The prize money for the European European Championship 2025 has received a remarkable increase and amount to a total of 41 million euros. This corresponds to an increase of 156 percent compared to the European Championship 2022, which was only endowed with 16 million euros. Each of the 16 participating team receives a fixed contribution of 1.8 million euros, which makes up 70 percent of the total prize money. The remaining 30 percent are supplemented by performance bonuses, such as Kicker reported.

The structure of the premiums provides that a team receives 100,000 euros in the group phase for a win and 50,000 euros for a tie. For the title win, the maximum sum could be 5.1 million euros, which is a progress compared to the 2.085 million euros of the last European Championship. Nevertheless, these amounts are still very low compared to the men who receive a total of 331 million euros in Germany in Germany.

financial challenges in women's football

The current financial situation in women's football remains worrying. UEFA expects a loss between 20 and 25 million euros to the women's European Championship, which is due to the low proceeds from media rights. Only 0.5 percent of the income of their male counterparts generates women's leagues. The right-wing contract of the English Women's League brings in around £ 13 million annually, while the Premier League reaches around £ 1.6 billion, such as Sportsbusiness.at emphasized.

Despite these challenges, UEFA remains optimistic and plans to promote women's football with a billion euros between 2024 and 2030. Both players and clubs who park national players for the tournament receive financial support to improve the situation. The promotion of women's football is considered necessary to strengthen fan interest and exploit the great market potential.

With over 570,000 tickets that have already been awarded, it can be seen that interest in the European women's European Championship is increasing. However, it remains to be seen how the economic framework conditions will develop in the future.