CANBERRA: The Australian women's football team will be guaranteed pay at par with the Socceroos for the first time under an agreement to treat the two national teams equally.
According to a report in The Australian on Tuesday, the pool of money for payments to both the male and female senior national teams will be identical, and all commercial revenues associated with both teams will be split 50-50 between them.
Historically, the Socceroos, like most men's national teams in the world, have been allocated a greater share of commercial revenues and been paid more to play compared to the Matildas (nickname of the women's national team of Australia), reports Xinhua news agency.
Some teams in the world have asked their own football associations for greater parity, with the US women's national team, the world champion, filing a law suit against the US Soccer Federation alleging "institutionalised gender discrimination" over pay and bonuses in March this year.
It's being hoped that the deal in Australia will be completed in time to be announced before the Matildas face Chile at home for a double-header of friendlies this month ahead of the Olympic qualifying tournament in February next year.