Last Friday, the FA announced plans to “significantly increase” the prize money in the Women’s FA Cup.
Nottingham Forest played Manchester City in the Women’s FA Cup on Saturday, with the WSL side running out 8-0 winners.
Dan Corlett, first team coach at Nottingham Forest, said: “The footprint of women’s football is growing year-on-year with more TV coverage and more people going to games it is only right that the prize money increases with that.”
Winners of the men’s competition receive £1.8 million while the women’s champions only get £25,000
An FA spokesperson said: “While the competition doesn’t yet drive commercial revenue to fund prize money growth, the FA board has agreed a significant increase in prize money to support the competition’s continued development. The additional prize money will come into effect from the 2022-23 season.”
Corlett said: “Getting parity with the men is going to take time, but hopefully that will happen eventually.
“It is something that I think every club will welcome right through from your Man City’s down to the teams coming in from the county league, who are coming into the FA Cup for the first time.
“Having the prize money increase is definitely the right thing in line with the increase in the popularity of the game.”
Forest’s fixture with City was played at the City Ground in front of 4,000 fans. “Anytime we get to play in front of a crowd is a plus and playing at the City Ground has been a massive aspiration for a lot of the girls.”
They normally play their fixtures at Eastwood Town, in the northeast of the city.
Forest are an amateur side, playing against a Man City loaded with international stars, “For some of the players it was easily the biggest opponents they’ll ever face. They’ve got Lucy Bronze, someone who has won player of the year, Olympic Gold medallist’s and senior England internationals and that was in the starting XI.
“Despite losing 8-0, if you asked them if they wanted the opportunity to do it again they would bite your hand off,” said Corlett.
