MEMBERS of the Philippine national women’s football team received a total of $2.25 million or around P125.163 million from FIFA, the world’s governing body for the sport, for making it to the tournament proper of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
The team, collectively known as the Filipinas, settled for a share of 17th to 32nd place with 15 other teams in the tournament.
The other teams include Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Germany, Haiti, Portugal, Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia.
Each player, led by scoring ace Sarina Bolden, was entitled to around $30,000 for their participation in the World Cup.
The Philippine Football Federation, on the other hand, got around $1.56 million for the undertaking from the FIFA.
In its annual report, FIFA “increased its financial contributions to players, participating member associations and the clubs of players taking part in the tournament.”
From $15 million in 2015 and $50 million in 2019, support for the athletes and their associations went to a new high of $152 million in 2023.
Financial activities related to the FIFA Women’s World Cup came out when the FIFA Council met in Zurich on Thursday last week and unanimously approved the Annual Report for 2023.
According to the report, Spain got $10.5 million for winning the championship, while England’s side took $7.5 million for its runner-up finish.
The Filipinas, who were coached by Allen Stajcic back then, managed to win once and lost two matches during the Group Stage.
The Filipinas later took part in the second round of the 2024 AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Perth, Australia, later that year.
Afterwards, they absorbed an 0-8 defeat to host Australia on the second matchday took place in front of a sold-out crowd of 59,155 at the Perth Stadium.
The loss kept the Philippines from advancing to the third round and qualify for the women’s football tournament of the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Officials said the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand “was an unprecedented success, with outstanding performances both on and off the pitch.”
With this success, officials added that there was “significantly increased investment in this historic tournament, as FIFA introduced new ground-breaking distribution models for the players and participating member associations to increase the rewards for their achievements at the tournament.”