Former Chelsea and England star Karen Carney believes that major brands should split sponsorship money 50/50 between men and women when investing in football clubs.

Carney was speaking on Monday Night Football following the Lionesses’ 1-0 defeat to Spain in the Women’s World Cup final on Sunday.

Sarina Wiegman’s side narrowly missed out on lifting their second consecutive major crown, having won the European Championship last summer.

They reached the final in Sydney without several key players due to injury, including Leah Williamson and Beth Mead, and became the first England side to reach a World Cup final in 57 years.

Attention now will turn to how further progress can be made across women’s football in England – particularly the domestic structure. The Women’s Super League is the only fully professional league in England.

Carney recently led a major review into women’s football, with one of her recommendations being to make the Women’s Championship – the second tier of women’s football – fully professional.

Speaking to Sky Sports following the review, the 36-year-old also stated her belief that women’s football could become a ‘billion-dollar industry’ if the right investment is made.

She elaborated on Monday Night Football: “People laughed at me when I said I believe it could be a billion-pound industry.

“There’s appetite. There’s conversations. It’s going in the right direction, but that’s why the review was so important. There’s still that Insta vs reality. We need to fix that reality for the sport to really thrive, because it’s built on sand still.

“It’s not built on solid foundations. The one part that is thriving, that’s the Lionesses, the England team. But the rest needs significant help to reach that level.”

When quizzed by Jamie Carragher over whether clubs are not investing as much because they are not making money from women’s football, she responded: “Men’s football doesn’t make profit.

“What clubs do in men’s football, they invest in it, they’re okay to have that loss. But the overall asset of a football club grows.

“There is a lot of stuff as well where, if a brand says, ‘We sponsor a football club’. How much goes to men and how much goes to women? Or is it the club saying, ‘Yeah, we’ll fund the women’ – how much is that?’

“I think big brands could go, and this is just my personal opinion, if a brand is going, ‘We’re going to invest in your football club’, go 50/50. Say, ‘Look, I’m giving 50 per cent to the men and 50 per cent to the women’. And state it.

“As a brand when you sponsor something, in my opinion, that’s a big audience. It shouldn’t just be one type of audience. I think brands have got to do a better job of that as well.

“I went somewhere last week and I had an argument with someone. I asked, ‘Are you going to sponsor a team?’ They said, ‘Yeah’, and I said, ‘Are you going to make sure that funding goes equally to the women’s game?’ They said they’d look into it.

“If you’re sponsoring the whole club, you have to be really clear on that. For me, there’s still lots of issues that need to be raised. The sport has had a spotlight shone on it, which is great, but we still need to push the agenda because there’s still so much that needs to be done.”

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Published 11:56 23 Jul 2025 GMT+1

Lucy Bronze has made her feelings clear on pay gap between men and women as Lionesses reach Euro 2025 final

England will take on either Spain or Germany in Sunday’s final.

Marcus Chan

Lucy Bronze has previously spoken about the pay gap between men’s and women’s footballers.

On Tuesday night, Bronze started for England as they took on Italy in the semi-final of the 2025 Women’s Euros.

Having trailed since Barbara Bonansea’s 33rd-minute goal, Michelle Agyemang saved the Lionesses again by scoring in the 96th minute.

In extra time, the tie looked like it would be going all the way to spot kicks, but Chloe Kelly scored a 119th-minute goal to seal England’s passage to the final.

According to a report by The Guardian, the England players will receive a collective bonus of £1.75 million from the FA if they win the Euros, with Sarina Wiegman’s team set to take on either Spain or Germany on Sunday evening.

Meanwhile, the tournament itself also has a prize for the winners.

England are through to the final of the 2025 Women’s Euros. Image: Getty

As reported by The Independent, winning this year’s Euros could bring in a bonus of up to €5.1 million, which was more than the €2 million England received three years ago.

Prior to the tournament, it was claimed that UEFA had set aside a total prize pot of €41 million, a 156 per cent increase from Euro 2022.

In comparison, the total prize money at the men’s Euros in 2024 was a staggering €331 million, with winners Spain taking home up to €28.25 million.

Back in November 2024, England star Bronze spoke about the pay gap between the men’s and women’s game.

When asked if women players can afford to retire, Bronze said to Sky: “The 1% probably can. If you’re smart with your money and live a certain kind of lifestyle, then there’s potential.

“I don’t live a crazy lifestyle with crazy cars or houses. So I could retire and live on my investments. I’ve been smart with my money, I’ve paid off student loans throughout my career.”

She added: “I know I’ve been successful in teams with a lot of money… I’m probably in that top per cent.

“Probably 99.9% of women’s players… you have to think about life after football.”

As published by Give Me Sport, Barcelona and Spain star Aitana Bonmati ranked as the highest-earning female footballer in 2025, taking home €1 million.

In the men’s game, the BBC stated that Cristiano Ronaldo remains top of the list, with an estimated earning of €275 million.

Alan Brazil sparks outrage with controversial outburst on women’s football during live radio segment as co-host calls him ‘proper dinosaur’

The presenter revealed his shock beliefs on Women’s football live on talkSPORT.

talkSPORT presenter Alan Brazil has caused outrage online for his comments about women’s football, leading to his co-host calling him a ‘proper dinosaur’.

Ever since the formation of the Women’s Super League in 2010, Women’s professional football has absolutely blown up in popularity, with thousands of fans tuning in to watch their team compete every week.

There is still some way to go for the women’s game to be viewed as an equal to the ever-popular Premier League, leading to clubs across the world starting initiatives to help raise the profile of the sport.

However, when discussing the latest plan announced by Manchester United, talkSPORT presenter Brazil went on a highly controversial rant which has been met with significant backlash online.

On Wednesday, a report from The Times revealed United’s ‘Mission 1’, a plan to help promote United women’s team by leading the side to their their first-ever Women’s Super League title.

The plan was discussed during talkSPORT’s breakfast show with Brazil and co-host Shebahn Aherne, but Brazil made it clear he wasn’t interested in United’s women team.

Alongside ‘Mission 1’, United unveiled ‘Mission 21’, a plan written by Sir Dave Brailsford, Director of Sport at Ineos, to get United back on track to winning the Premier League, and Brazil argued that this is all that people cared about.

Speaking about the two plans, Aherne said: “Both missions includes another mission for the women’s team it’s called Mission 1. The plan to get the women to the first title in the WSL.

“Both missions come under this broader project 150 which aims to get the club back to winning the Premier League.”

But before she could finish, Brazil interrupted, adding: “With the greatest respect, when you talk about Manchester United, women’s football is getting more important but when you talk about Manchester United, it’s only the men’s and the Premier League we’re talking about here with mission impossible. It’s not the women’s.

Manchester United are currently second in the Women’s Super League table. (Image: Getty)

Aherne clarified that the women’s team are specifically mentioned in United’s plan, but Brazil didn’t care, stating: “Sorry, people around the world are not bothered. They’re not. In the bigger picture, they’re not.

“The bigger picture is men want to see, Man Utd fans want to see Manchester United in the Premier League challenging

But Aherne wasn’t willing to give in to her colleagues point of view, replying: “I want to see that too but I would also quite like to see the women being supported. You’ve just said people don’t care, people do care.

“The bigger picture is having a future and being valued”

Brazil responded by saying that he was not willing to ‘sit here and lie’ by saying that United’s women team was important to people, and remained steadfast in his view that it’s only the success of the men’s team that matters.

Leading to Aherne letting her frustrations known by hitting out at Brazil, saying: “Al, stop being like that. Honestly. You sound like a proper dinosaur. That is obviously you’re spirit animal the way you sound on this this morning. I don’t know why you’re speaking like that.

“Listen to yourself. There is a project. That’s unbelievable from you. You’re the one with a granddaughter playing football. Listen to your language right now, that’s important.”

England and Chelsea star Lucy Bronze has revealed that 99.9% of female footballers will not be able to retire and live off their current salaries.

33-year-old Bronze is one of the finest players in England history having played for the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Lyon and Barcelona before moving to Chelsea in the summer.

On the international stage, Bronze has been capped 126 times by England and was part of the squad that won the Euros in 2022.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Women’s Super League clash between Chelsea and Liverpool, Bronze spoke about how female players can’t live off their current wages.

When asked if women players can afford to retire, Bronze said to Sky: “The 1% probably can. If you’re smart with your money and live a certain kind of lifestyle, then there’s potential.

“I don’t live a crazy lifestyle with crazy cars or houses. So I could retire and live on my investments. I’ve been smart with my money, I’ve paid off student loans throughout my career.”

She added: “I know I’ve been successful in teams with a lot of money… I’m probably in that top per cent.

“Probably 99.9% of women’s players… you have to think about life after football.”

Bronze then spoke about how winning the Euros has impacted her life on and off the pitch.

She said: “I didn’t have to go from 0 to 100 overnight. I had a steady buildup throughout my career. Winning the Euros – it changed things, but I’d already had that experience.”

Bronze was also part of the Lionesses squad which lost 1-0 to Spain in last year’s World Cup final.

Getty

Playing for Barcelona at the time, Bronze touched on having to return to Spain after the heartbreaking defeat in Australia.

The defender said: “The first two days [there] was a bit of awkwardness in the air… walking into a Spanish club.

“It was difficult going back to Spain. When we left Australia, we had a week off then. To go back to Barcelona… walking in and getting commiserations while the person in front of us and the person behind us was getting celebrated for winning the World Cup [was hard].”

Sarina Wiegman guided England to more success at Euro 2025, but her salary compared to men’s head coach Thomas Tuchel is astonishing.

England retained their European championship title on Sunday night with a dramatic penalty shootout victory over the pre-game favourites Spain.

After a difficult first half, the Lionesses trailed 1-0 following Mariona Caldentey’s goal, before they hit back in the second-half through Alessia Russo.

The game went to penalties, and Chloe Kelly – with her now trademark run-up – scored the decisive penalty to win the shootout.

It is the second major honour of Wiegman’s tenure as England manager following success at Euro 2022.

She also led England to a World Cup final in 2023, where they lost 1-0 to Spain.

Despite her success in charge of the Lionesses, Wiegman’s salary is dwarfed by that of her male counterpart Tuchel.

Chloe Kelly after scoring for England (Image: Florencia Tan Jun – UEFA / Contributor via Getty)

Although the FA have not publicly disclosed her salary, TNT Sports claim she earns an annual wage of £400,000, plus potential performance-related bonuses.

By contrast, Tuchel reportedly earns an eye-watering £5m a year as England boss.

Mark Bullingham, who is the FA’s CEO gave his thoughts to BBC Sport on the huge pay divide.

He said: “I think she is obviously operating in a different market.

“If you think about how we regard the importance of each role, we think they are equally important. The fact we have her locked down until 2027 is fantastic.

“We’re obviously happy with the job she’s doing and I’ve always said she can do any job in world football but we’re delighted she’s with us and with the Lionesses.”

Sarina Wiegman celebrating (Image: DeFodi Images / Contributor via Getty)

How big is the pay divide?

On the international stage, England’s men’s and women’s national teams have been paid equally since 2020.

Players receive £2000 per match, which most donate to charity – although it is not a requirement.

But the much bigger pay divide can be seen at club level.

The highest-paid player in the WSL is believed to be Chelsea’s Australian star Sam Kerr, who is thought to earn £449,000 per season.

In comparison, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland earns more than that each week, reportedly pocketing £525,000.

Back in 2022, the BBC found that the average WSL salary was £47,000, while the Telegraph reported that some players made just £20,000 a year.

Although establishing a fair average for Premier League players is tricky due to the astronomical salaries at top clubs, on average Wolves paid their squad £4.7m in 2022.

That means, on average, male players earn around 100 times more than their female counterparts.