Prize money in the early rounds of the Women’s FA Cup is inadequate according to the clubs. The reward for winning a tie is so small that it fails to cover away travel.

Sunday‘s third round saw teams such as Burnley, Southampton, Watford, and Huddersfield go through the next stage of the competition receiving only £1,250 for doing so - this is 108 times less than what their male counterparts get for winning the same round.  

Both Barnsley women and men won their third-round ties, with the latter receiving £135,000.

The team that is victorious at Wembley on May 9 and crowned Women’s FA Cup winners will get only £25,000 - this is more than five times less than men's third-round winners.

A strategy called ‘Game Plan for Growth‘ has seen more than £18m invested into it by The Football Association, Ipswich manager Joe Sheehan said this on the gap in prize money.

”It’s like a chicken-and-egg situation. Without a bigger financial reward, you can’t really develop staff or facilities. Our players don’t earn a Penney.”

Ipswich started their 2019-20 cup campaign with a win in the second qualifying round, receiving a minuscule £450 for doing so.

The club has won five games in the competition now, four of which were home ties.

”That’s really helped us. But if you get two away games, you could end up actually at a deficit.

”That should be the case. It makes things difficult. You’d like to see a bigger reward.” Sheehan added.

The reason for the significant difference in prize money between men’s and women’s games is due to money being generated through commercial revenue. 

An FA spokesperson said the following:

“The prize funds for the 2018-19 SSE Women’s FA Cup was the largest in the history of the competition and over £252,000 was distributed across the competing teams.” 

This seasons prize money has stayed the same as last years.

The team who lift the men’s FA Cup will get £3.6m plus money from their victories in previous rounds on top of this.

Due to the men’s competition is the biggest revenue producer for the FA, generating £212m per year - it allows them to invest the £18m into the ‘Game Plan for Growth’ strategy.

The spokesperson added:

”We are also currently developing a five-year strategy with the Fa Women's Super League and Championship clubs to grow audiences and revenues, which will help make women’s football in England more commercially viable in the future and allow further reinvestment.”