The third edition of the Supercopa do Brasil between Flamengo and Atlético-MG was another success in all aspects. High quality game on the field, emotion until the end (with an endless penalty shootout) and the certainty that the creation of the competition was a ball within the CBF.
In women’s football, this year the Supercopa do Brasil was created in another format. Among women, there is no competition for the Copa do Brasil, a tournament that was discontinued in 2016, and their football demand is different – to have more competitive games, a more complete calendar for more teams around the country.
A short-shot tournament was then created to open the season, with participation based on classification in the Brazilian Championship (first and second division) and the variety of regions represented. It was practically ten days, eight participants, seven games and a public and audience success. In addition, a total of 13 sponsors invested in exposing their brands at the event.
But one thing caught the attention of some fans when Kia, one of the sponsors of the men’s Supercopa do Brasil, announced the award for the best player of the match: a zero car worth 150 thousand reais. One of the manifestations was by the winner of the award for ace of the match in the women’s Supercup final, midfielder Gabi Zanotti, from Corinthians, who posted: “Expectation: car; Reality: Trophy and medals” in the form of emoticons on Twitter.
It is important to point out: I do not think it is fair to make any comparison of awards or salaries between men’s football and women’s football because the reality of the two modalities today is absolutely different. The men’s football market has been around longer and is on another level.
But starting from this hook, it is worth rescuing here an important discussion about awards in women’s football – today, they are either non-existent (in the newly created Supercup, in the state ones, including the oldest of them, Paulista) or they haven’t had readjustments for a long time.
The first time that a national women’s competition was awarded was in 2017, when the CBF announced that it would give R$120,000 to the champion and R$60,000 to the runner-up.
From 2017 to 2021, the award did not increase significantly. It remains with the same values. In 2022, there is still no confirmation whether there will be a readjustment.
Considering that the women’s soccer scenario in Brazil changed from 2017 to 2021 – now there are games broadcast on open and closed TV, sale of competition naming rights (for Neoenergia from June 2021) and the entry of sponsors (Guaraná Antarctica , Riachuelo and a bookmaker)–, it was to be expected that this would also have an impact on the prize pool.
If the level of competition increased, clubs began to invest more, press vehicles gave more visibility and brands became interested in sponsoring, wouldn’t it be fair that the champions of the main national competitions also received more? This is what will make the wheel spin, teams will want to invest more, because the return will start to come.
Libertadores Feminina, for example, will have a very significant increase in the prize pool for 2022. Conmebol announced that the champion will receive 1.5 million dollars (R$ 8.5 million) and the runner-up will receive 500 thousand dollars (R$ 2 .8 million). An award 17 times greater than that of 2021.
The CBF surplus has money to boost the Brazilian Women’s prize pool a little more and give a fairer return to the national champions, who are investing more to win the titles. Clubs should even be the first to knock on the entity’s president’s door to make this charge.
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