Wales agree equal pay deal for men's and women's national teams

The Football Association of Wales has announced that an equal pay agreement has been reached for the Welsh men’s and women’s national teams.

The agreement will cover the period up to and including the 2026 Men’s World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Wales join a number of national teams to have agreed equal pay deals over the last 12 months, alongside the USWNT, the Netherlands and Spain.

“Together Stronger has been the mantra across the Cymru National Teams for us all, both on and off the pitch as we look to put Wales on the world stage,” a joint statement released by the Wales men’s and women’s national teams read.

“As part of the FAW’s strive towards equality, we are now proud to announce that together, our Men’s and Women’s teams have agreed to an equal pay structure for future international matches. We hope that this will allow future generations of boys and girls to see that there is equality across Welsh International football, which is important for society as a whole.

“With this agreement in place, we will now look ahead to the UEFA Euro 2024 and 2025 qualifying campaigns, as we aim to see further success across both our senior teams in the near future.”

Wales made history in 2022 as they qualified for the Women’s World Cup playoffs for the very first time. Gemma Grainger’s side were a game away from sealing World Cup qualification, but suffered a last gasp extra time defeat to Switzerland.

England began paying male and female players the same appearance fees and bonuses for senior international games outside major tournaments at the start of 2020, while Scotland have launched legal action against the Scottish FA in a fight for equal pay and working conditions.