Lucy Bronze lays down gauntlet after Lionesses reach agreement on FA pay dispute
Lucy Bronze has vowed the Lionesses will keep “challenging” to drive the women’s game upwards - after settling their World Cup bonus dispute.
The right back scored to help England to a 2-1 win over Scotland at the Stadium of Light on Friday night, as it was revealed the team were due a big windfall. Sarina Wiegman’s World Cup players will share £800,000 after a settlement with the FA. That takes squad earnings from the tournament to £4.25m.
They reached their first ever World Cup final, but lost 1-0 to Spain in Sydney last month, after pausing their row with officials over pay. The windfall included a tournament bonus and historic commercial payments the players argued they were owed since the Euros.
Bronze and captain Millie Bright were involved in the negotiations. Each player had secured £150,000 in Fifa prize money for finishing runners up, but the Lionesses demanded extra bonuses from the FA.
Bronze said: “We're happy to have been able to draw a line on the bonuses and previous stuff and move forward with the FA and the PFA, making sure that we were challenging women's football.
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"We want to set the standard on and off the pitch to help other countries be able to set the standard. I think it's something that the USA have been doing for many years, and now England is a team that is able to lead the way as well.”
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Lucy Bronze scored in England's victory over Scotland (Getty Images)On the pitch they were rusty in their Nations League clash, with many players not having competitive action for 33 days since the final. Bronze was delighted to score on “home” turf having played for Sunderland and grown up in the border town of Berwick.
She added: “It's really nice. This is one of the first men's stadiums I ever played at when I was 17 years old, and we beat Chelsea here in the FA Cup. So it brings back a lot of memories being here, and obviously a lot of family and friends have been able to come to the game, which is nice for me, personally, and to score makes it a little bit more special.
I felt the first-half we played really well, created a lot of chances, probably should have seen the game out in that first half really. A sloppy goal to concede right before halftime, which changed the course of the game, and the second-half gave Scotland a lot of confidence and we probably gave a couple of sloppy balls away, and found it a little harder to play out, but in the end, we won the game and I think Scotland played a good game.”
England need to win their league, with Netherlands up next, then finish top two in a four team finals group, to qualify for the Paris Olympics next summer. Wiegman will manage that Team GB collective and said: “The Olympics is far away. But this is a good start.
“Coaching Team GB would be exciting, we want to go to tournaments and the Olympics is very special. We are focusing on one game, Scotland, then Netherlands. Let’s continue winning games and see how far we get.”
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