A pay dispute between the Football Association and the England women’s football team, which includes Aylesbury’s Ellen White, has finally been resolved.
Arsenal star White, 21, and 19 of her Three Lions’ teammates are expected to put pen to paper on an increase in their central contracts from £16,000 to £20,000 a year in the coming days.
Previously the FA had offered £18,000 with Hope Powell’s squad refusing to sign the deal on the advice of the Professional Footballers Association.
The main sticking point was how many extra hours they are allowed to work in another job to supplement their income with some of the women struggling to earn enough while training for both club and country.
An agreement was eventually reached to allow the stars to work an extra 24 hours, up from 18 hours, in another job.
The women’s game has expanded in the past year with plenty of live games and more than 70,000 people turning out at Wembley to watch Team GB beat Brazil at the Olympics.
PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor labelled the FA’s earlier £18,000 offer as ‘embarrassing’.
He told the BBC: “Come on, that figure is embarrassing. Top Premier League players are earning more in a day.”
England and Lincoln defender Sophie Bradley, 23, also told the BBC she believed the players deserve a pay rise.
She said: “I think it’s now got to the point where we need to be rewarded because of the amount of people who are interested in watching us play and the progression of the game.
“The women in the England team don’t get paid even half as much, even a quarter as much as the men’s team.
“It’s really hard so it would be nice to play football full-time.
“The amount of work we put in, I wouldn’t say we get the reward in terms of money.”
White, who used to play for Chelsea and Leeds, is away with England at La Manga, Spain, for a week-long training camp and was unavailable for comment.
England women will be in action this summer at the Euro Championships in Sweden.The Three Lions are in arguably the toughest group with France, Spain and Russia.
