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# Pay the women’s players properly
- URL: https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/pay-the-womens-players-properly/
- Published: 2026-07-24T17:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-24T17:30:00.000Z
- Description: Not professional salaries. Match fees, travel and boots. The money exists, and the clubs that pay are winning.
- Author: Ellie Bramwell
- Tags: Opinion, Women’s game, #Import 2026-10-02 15:58

The women who play in our Women's League train three evenings a week, play every Sunday and travel up to two hours each way for away games. Most are paid nothing. A few receive expenses. Almost all have full-time jobs or study. It is time to pay them properly, and the money exists.

![Most players in the Women’s League train after a full working day.](https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/pay-train-1.jpg)

Most players in the Women’s League train after a full working day.

I do not mean professional salaries. The league cannot afford them, and nobody is asking for them. I mean a basic match fee, travel paid in full, and kit and boots provided. For a squad of twenty, that is roughly what a men's Northern League club spends on one mid-table player.

The usual answer is that women's football does not bring in enough money. That was true ten years ago. It is less true every season. Crowds in our Women's League have tripled in five years. Ironworks drew 1,600 people to a league game in April. The new television deal brings money for the first time. The sponsors are interested.

More importantly, the clubs that pay a little are already winning. Saltmarsh, the champions, pay match fees and travel. So do Ironworks. Their players train more, leave less and play better. That is not a coincidence.

> We are not asking to be rich. We are asking not to lose money playing for our club.  
>  
> **a Women's League captain, who asked us not to name her**

![Many players still buy their own boots. At this level, that can be a month's spare money.](https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/pay-kit-1.jpg)

Many players still buy their own boots. At this level, that can be a month's spare money.

There is a fairness question too. In most of our clubs, the men's first team and the women's first team share a ground, a badge and a name. The men are paid. The women are not. Fans notice. Young girls notice.

What would it take? A small share of the men's team's sponsorship, set aside for the women's team. A share of the new television money paid directly to players. Ticket prices of £5, which most fans would happily pay. And clubs that decide the women's team is part of the club, not a favour to it.

Some clubs say they would pay if they could, but the money is not there. I would ask them to look at the figures again. The women's first team at most of our clubs costs less to run than the men's under-23s, and it draws bigger crowds. If a club can find money for one, it can find money for the other.

There is also a cost to doing nothing. Players leave. Good players in our league are already being offered expenses by clubs in other regions, and some are accepting. Every player who leaves takes years of a club's coaching with her.

Pay them. Not because it is generous. Because they are worth it, and because a club that treats half its players as volunteers will not keep them for long.