The Vitality Women’s FA Cup prize fund will be increased to £3 million per season from next campaign onwards, the Football Association have announced.
The current prize pool for the competition is approximately £309,000.
The near 10-fold rise of prize money will be an incredible uplift for clubs competing in the tournament.
The 2021/22 iteration of the competition saw 417 teams enter.
Losing clubs in the first qualifying round won just £100, with some clubs having to travel across the country for their fixtures.
The FA Board signed off on the prize increase last Thursday (March 10), with the funding set to be spread throughout every round of the competition.
An FA statement said: “One commitment of the FA will be making a disproportionate amount of this new fund invested into the early rounds of the competition.
“This will ensure those clubs further down the pyramid entering those rounds, really feel the benefit from the prize money earned.”
The increase will allow more teams to compete in the FA Cup.
More prize money will also mean improvements to grassroots developments in women’s football.
Sue Campbell, Director of Women’s Football at the FA, said: “It’s going to benefit so many clubs across the women’s football pyramid.
“The FA Cup is the biggest and best domestic competition in the world.
“Women’s football continues to be in a growth phase and we’re always looking to make improvements.
“[We want to] drive it forward and break new boundaries. This is one of the most pleasing of my time [at the FA] because I know it means so much to many.”
Difference to men’s competition
In increasing the prize money to the Women’s FA Cup, the gap between it and the men’s version of the competition continues to close.
The difference remains to be stark, though. The men’s FA Cup final has £2.7m available just to the two teams that compete in the final.
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons via FourthandFifteen)
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