Women’s and Youth Minister Lisa Paus stunned with a statement that she wants performance in women’s and men’s football to be paid equally. A comment on the abstruse demand.
Women’s and Youth Minister Lisa Paus demands better pay for female footballers. “I think that if sporting criteria are fulfilled, performance should be paid equally,” said the Green politician on the sidelines of her summer tour during an appointment with the Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt.
One thing in advance: You can demand anything, politicians are also known for demanding things where everyone, except the person making the demand, knows that the wishes are completely out of touch with reality.
And that is also the case here. Of course, it would be great if footballers could be showered with money in equal measure. The discussion that runs right through society should also be allowed to take place in football, no question about that.
But the answer is quickly given, and that is what one would like to shout out to Mrs. Paus. Dear Minister, that won’t work, how are you going to pay for it?
According to Ms. Paus, it must be self-evident that organised sport as well as amateur and popular sport should live in equality. This also applies to sports reporting.
Once again, the question: How can this be done? Of course, everyone wants equality. But: women only earn a fraction of what men do. Be it in sponsoring, be it in the stadiums, be it in fanshop paraphernalia. And the media can’t just make everything equal because of the demands for equality, no matter how the interests of the users are anchored.
No company harms itself. If the interest were so great, the reporting would increase accordingly. After all, every company must be allowed to put its interests first.
Therefore, it is a purely populist demand by the minister, who will never find an approach how equal pay should be financed. Unless she thinks of subsidies, according to which every citizen has to pay for this demand, that even those get an equal share, but who only provide a minimal percentage.
In conclusion: Don’t misunderstand, in a perfect world everyone earns the same – in every industry. But we do not live in a perfect world. In our world, sponsors and spectators pay the most for men’s football. It is true that interest in women’s football is growing, and accordingly more money is already flowing there. And that is the right and serious thing to do.
As interest increases, so do revenues and earning potential. Anything else is simply wasted time on the part of a minister who does not yet seem to have arrived in the real world of sport. Or she has simply expressed herself in a really stupid way, which is rather unlikely, because most politicians know exactly what they are saying – even if it often seems otherwise.