Fans are getting ready for the big game in spain too. The womens game there has seen an explosion in popularity, with the number of women players in federated leagues increasing by almost 200 from 2009 to 2022. Heres one of them. Translation the way they are showing us they are breaking down barriers time and time again the collective Bargaining Agreement a few years ago, the professionalisation of womens football, all this, and also the way they represent the values of sport for me and i think for all of us is a complete inspiration. Off the field during this competition, there have been serious conversations taking place about womens sport and its place in the world, including pay equality. The total prize pot for the womens world cup is 110 million thats a 300 increase from the 2019 tournament. But by comparison, its significantly lower than the 1140 million pot for the mens tournament in qatar last year. At the beginning of the competition, analysis by cnn found that female players at the world cup would on average earn just 25 cents for every dollar earned by the men. Many teams have called for more to be done to acheive pay parity and better conditions, like this from the australian side. We call on those who run the game to work to provide opportunities for girls and women in football, whether that be players, coaches, administrators or officials. And we call on all those in positions of power across football, business and politics to come on this journey with us to make womens football as big as it can be. In the matildas case, the Australian Government at least was listening. It announced a 200 Million Investment in womens sport friday, on the back of ratings like this. More than 11 Million People watched the side lose to england, which saw the lionesses book a spot in the final. It makes it the most watched tv Program Since australias ratings measurement started in 2001. And close to a Million People also tuned in on the seven networks streaming application another record. But the response from the world games governing body, fifa, as recently as friday has come under fire. Speaking in sydney, fifa president Gianni Infantino said women who pick the right fights can convince us men what we have to do to ensure progress is made for women. Pick the right battles. Pick the right fights. You have the power to change. You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we dont have to do. You do it. Just do it. With me, with fifa, you will find open doors. Just push the doors. They are open. For more on this, i spoke to former american professional Soccer Player, joanna lohman. Joanna lohman, former professional Soccer Player and member of the us National Team, thank you forjoining us. You might talk to us a little bit about the life of the woman Soccer Player in the us. Many people think big mansions and flash cars, eye watering salaries. Is it the same for the women in the us . I hate to be a myth buster but it is unfortunately not the same in the United States. I say that knowing that the sport is growing exponentially. The resources being invested in the womens game are growing, but when i was a Soccer Player i retired in 2019, so from anywhere between 2000 to 2019 the salary was below minimum wage. I would say on average i made about 15 16,000 a year playing professional soccer, and instead of living in a mansion i would live with a host family and it was a situation where we understood the resources were very minimal and the salaries were very minimal and so we were working towards a Brighter Future which you are seeing now with the 2023 womens world cup and the current state of the nwsl in the United States. The salaries might be different between men and women but the commitment is no less different, the pressure on your body is no less different. There is still a long road to go, isnt there . Yeah, there is a very long road to go and we have been fighting, battling for equal pay, dating back into the 1985 is when the Womens National team had their first ever team camp, and so this has been decades, generations of fighting for equal pay, and, again, we are starting to see steps taken towards equal pay. We had the Womens National team who in 2022 signed into law equal pay and you are seeing that have a Ripple Effect on the countries around the globe. You are seeing countries like canada in the confrontation with their federation because of equal pay. You are seeing different teams really trying to push for equality and justice and for what they feel like they deserve. Yet the prize money is not the same. This world cup is only one quarter of the fund that there was for the mens world cup. Fifa has grossly undervalued the womens game and the 2023 womens world cup is another statement about how powerful womens soccer can be and so it will force fifa to truly look at the game in a more serious manner and be forced to dedicate more resources towards the womens game and again we have fought tooth and nailfor the quality and we have consistently created events, world cup, where we are selling out stadiums, where you see growth year after year when it comes to the world cup and now i think australia has been a testament to the womens game, the talent, the skill level, the humanity involved in it and all of the compelling story lines that we have going into this world cup final. Given that long push that you have described, when you see the comments today from the fifa president Gianni Infantino who says women who pick the right fights can convince men of what we need to do to progress womens football, what is your reaction to that statement . It is infuriating to a certain extent because we have consistently had to ask for what we deserve and demand for there to be progress and change. In the face of so much resistance and that is what makes me so proud to be a part of the womens game is the battles that we have fought in the face of pushback, and everyone is saying we dont deserve it. So, as well as being an international and club Soccer Player you are also a College Athlete and if we look at title 9, that gives women athletes the right to equal opportunity in sports in educational institutions that are in receipt of federal funding. Should the penalty for institutions that dont do that, that dont divide money equally, should those penalties be stronger or more strongly enforced . Yeah, they should be. Title 9, back in 1970 was enacted so women do get equal access and resources when it comes to sports and it has been a transformational piece of legislation for female athletes in the United States of america, but there have been countless institutions that have tried to sidestep or get around the concept of equal investment when it comes to womens sports. I would be interested to know your thoughts just when you are talking there about worth and that kind of messaging. We have so many young girls and young women tuning in every day of the week to womens sports, and particularly now to the world cup final. What sort of messaging does that send to them when you are raising these points about this means we are not worth as much. It means that they are with fractions of what a man is worth and that is not the messaging that we want to send women in the United States or globally because we have found that the best leaders tend to be women, right . The skills that we possess, that women have had in spades when it comes to empathy and other Listening Skills and compassion, these create the best and most effective leaders, who run our countries, who run our companies, who run our businesses, run our families, and when you create a female athlete you are creating a future leader, and that is exactly what we want to do with this womens world cup is have every young woman who is watching inspired to believe that they can achieve more. Inspired to believe that they can be the next leader, the next president of the United States, right . The next prime minister. And that is absolutely the type of messaging we want to send to young women around the world. Focusing on those great athletes just briefly, the final is on saturday. It is the pinnacle of your sport. I will put you on the spot and say england or spain for the win . I am on the bbc, but i would be saying this otherwise i am taking england over spain. I have been so impressed with the lionesses resilience this tournament when it comes to injuries, playing in front of 75,000 people who are rooting against you in the stands. They have been an inspiration so i am taking the lionesses in the world cup final. 0k. We will leave it there. Joanna lohman, former professional Soccer Player and member of the us National Team, thank you forjoining us. Thank you. Someone else hoping for an english victory is alex culvin a former professional english Soccer Player and currently head of strategy and research for womens football at fifpro, which represents 65,000 professional Soccer Players, Male And Female. We caught up with her earlier. Lets get your thoughts on the Big Game Injust A Moment but first lets talk about the tournament and womens soccer in general. There have been some top drawer soccer on display these past few weeks but also the tournament has signed a light on inequality in pay, prizemoney, very basic things like kit and access to physios and proper nutrition. What do you think the legacy of this tournament is . The what do you think the legacy of this tournament is . This tournament is . The legacy that we will this tournament is . The legacy that we will see this tournament is . The legacy that we will see is this tournament is . The legacy that we will see is one this tournament is . The legacy that we will see is one of this tournament is . The legacy that we will see is one of the i that we will see is one of the best tournaments that there has beenin best tournaments that there has been in womens football to date. I think the players have performed to a level that was expected from everybody who is a fan and who works in womens football but for those new fans probably something they had never seen before because it has been truly exceptional. I think moving the tournament to 32 teams has meant that the quality has increased, where many people actually doubted that and thought the quality would decrease because of the increase in teams, so i think on the pitch legacy is actually phenomenal. I think off the pitch legacy is yet to be seen. I think you are right in citing that there has been a lot of discussions around pay equity, around conditions, around basic treatment of high performing athletes and International Footballers and i think that remains to be seen. I dont think the conversation should stop here, and we are really conscious of once the lights goes off and these players and the world cup finishes, what happens after that . So, it remains to be seen what the is off the field and around the players in a more holistic sense that i am hoping the conversation does not stop here. There is a big difference, isnt there, country to country . You have somewhere like the us where there is equal pay at a National Level but that is not the same in every country. Tell us about that. The us is the anomaly in International Womens football and i think what we see now, because there is such a spotlight on womens football, is that we see that the us has got equal pay and equal revenue that goes into the collective Bargaining Agreements, but actually, that was a long and hard fought battle over many, many years, which started around 2015, so they are something to strive for for every National Team around the world, however, when you look down and we move more broadly, football globally, there are really fragmented examples of how football is developing globally, and that is for a couple of reasons. It is investment, first and firmost, about being prepared to say we are investing in this term and it is a long term strategic investment. In many teams what happens is they go from tournament to tournament, so they invest for a Ceratin Amount of time, so it is likely invest for this certain amount of time because we want this when actually what we really encourage is for a long term, Strategic Vision for not only National Teams but also Club Football as well that we note that to invest in players does not mean that you get results. It is not an Immediate Impact of investment, and i think england are a really good example of that as well, the way that they have invested in the National Team quite heavily since the formation of the fawsl in 2011 and we have seen the European Championship winners and also world cup finalist. So, youre talking about a long road travel there. A long road still to go. I would be interested to get your response to todays comments from the fifa president Gianni Infantino. When you hear him say that women should pick the right battles to convince us men what we have to do, that there are open doors at fifa that women just need to push, and describing equal pay in the world cup as a slogan that comes up every now and again, but you make of that . I think it is a really interesting way to view the struggles that women face in womens football. And globally. Football is a microcosm of society. The battle for equal working conditions, maternity, all of those kind of battles that we see in womens football, for example. They are just battles that women experience day to day in their working life so football isnt different. I think the comments from jenny infantino, they kind of reinforce that there is a lack of understanding more broadly about the struggles that women encounter on a day to day basis Gianni Infantino, because it is not wholly the Response Ability of women is to push down doors that are shut. There needs to be real consideration and investment and intend to open those doors for female footballers because it is not their responsibility to push those down, in my opinion. I think that equal pay is not a slogan and actually it is not something that should actually be it is often used as a mask. You see our federations being like we are stamping equal pay on our womens, mens and National Team and actually it is often used as a mask for really poor conditions so i think im quite happy for the equal pay to be called a slogan because i think we need to look at the whole holistic picture of players, conditions, compensation, protector dialogue for players, that is really important for us as feefa. It is something that can be used but also something that is super important fifa. Alex there from the players union. As alex said, the issues were talking about arent exclusive to soccer. Adelphi university in 2019 analysed average player compensation in american sport. It found a massive pay gap between the nba and the wnba. Fast forward a few years to last season, the top earning male made more than 50 million, while the highest paid females made 228,000. The study found a large difference between what Male And Female golfers in the pga and lga that year made as well. And in 2019, tennis, well known for its female athletes, was a little closer, but average earnings for players still not the same. For more on this i spoke with dr bonnie morris, an expert on womens sports history at the university of california berkeley, and macaela mackenzie, a sports journalist and author covering womens equality. Lets start there with the issue of tennis. The men and women get paid the same prize money at grand slam events, but not other events necessarily, but the Sponsorship Deals vary widely, and thats in a sport where some women are as big if not bigger stars than their male counterparts dr bonnie morris, The Path Of Progress moves slowly for women in sport, doesnt it . Its very slow. I second everything your previous speaker, alex, had to say, and i was interested to hear her praise for the progress of womens soccer in the United States, we are certainly behind in so many other areas of equity. Tennis has had a bit of a head start because of the dynamic push by Billiejean King and her very famous Battle Of The Sexes victory over bobby riggs which is about to celebrate a golden anniversary, 50 years in late september. Sometimes you really need one advocate to open the door to look at in equity, but i also think we have a pattern in the us of assuming that male sports are the standard and that allowing women to play is, you know, some kind of pathway towards fairness. That sets up a real parameter that its almost a privilege for women to step onto any court, they have to prove themselves, they have to come up with the funds, and the structure has been set up early on to support and mentor men, and initially, to have men bringing other men along. So the gap we have in the us is not simply the pay and equity in Womens Basketball that you mention, but the struggle Women Coaches and Women Athletic Directors to be in a leadership position, to help nurture other womens sports. 0k, and michaelia mckenzie, if i can bring you in there, you have been writing about sport and feminism. This bought one place where on some level, sexism appears to be tolerated in a way it isnt in other walks of life . I think that is absolutely true. Dr morris brings up the Battle Of The Sexes with Billie Jean King in the 705, and i spoke to billie jean for my book and one of the things that she talks about, she knew very clearly at the time, and still understands very clearly now, was that in order to get real change in these metrics like pay and prize money, sponsorship dollars, we need to have Culture Change. Its about changing Hearts And Minds and notjust trying to win this argument about who is really better on the court. As she did with bobby riggs. I think that really speaks to what we see in sports like tennis, as you bring up, there are many stars who are much bigger and have bigger fan bases on the womens side, they draw bigger Viewership Numbers and still the Sponsorship Gap exists. I think that speaks to the underlying bias that still really haunts the sports industry. You mentioned changing culture there. If we look at the issue of Maternity Leave, thats something in the field of soccer anyway where fifa has said female players must have Maternity Leave. So the rules are there to protect them, but its not necessarily the case that the culture is there as well, michaelia. Absolutely. It is one thing to say that you have paid leave which is enough of a fight already, obviously in the us it is something that we currently do not have in most industries, most women do not have the opportunity available to them, but even if they do, having a culture that supports the return to work and in sports specifically, the return to play, where obviously your body is yourjob thats something that really needs to happen i think from the top down. I think were starting to see a lot of progress there, us soccer has actually been a surprising leader in that space according to a lot of the players over the years who have felt supported in their return to play after becoming mothers. But thats something that we absolutely need to see more broadly. Crosstalk. How can we solve these issues . I just feel like historically theres a lot of skittishness around womens bodies. Theres all this tension around modesty, what are the uniforms, thats a big barrier globally for many young women from conservative cultures, to do any kind of public or even private playing, in the us even with more progressive attitudes about public appearance of women or participation or dress, theres is still a lot of or dress, theres still a lot of tension about the exposure of womens arms and legs, Maternity Leave or the interesting discussion about women having to wear white when theyre so conscious about their period, that goes back to the historic discomfort in the culture about womens bodies being on display. And historically, what weve been willing to pay for is a culture is beauty contests, the display of attractiveness. And not athletic competitiveness. And until we move past that cultural tension, well be stuck with evaluating players based on appearance and not understanding that its the everyday support of women from cradle to grave, through all life stages, not simply the novelty of an occasional world cup event. But i think what alex again was saying earlier, the long term vision of investment in athleticism, self confidence, less concern with beauty and more concern with strength, in the same way we inculcate those ideals with men. 0k, and very briefly, michaelia, because we are out of time on this, on the point of keeping young girls and young women in sport, theres a big challenges there. Just briefly, how could that be addressed . I think it needs to start with this Culture Change that were talking about. It needs to start with the idea that womens sports are a product worth investing in. For so long the conversation has been that women arent strong, arent as fast, arent as skilled, but still very much permeates the conversation around sport. But i think what we are seeing especially in this world cup cycle is what happens when you treat the product of womens sport as a valuable Entertainment Property that people can and will and should get excited about. Thats all for this bbc news special on the womens world cup. For more coverage of the tournament you can go to our website, its at bbc. Com news. There you can catch all you need to know for sundays big game. Thanks for watching. Im catriona perry, stay with us here on bbc news. Hello there. Storm betty is bearing down upon us through the rest of the night and the start of the weekend. Second named storm this month, and giving a lot of wet weather and windy weather, particularly for the western side of the uk. So heavy rain, potentially some really nasty thunderstorms across central and eastern areas being warned of could give some likely disruption, as well as the unusually windy weather which could bring down the odd small tree not great news for those under canvas either, those winds are more akin to autumn. So there are warnings out quite widespread warnings. More details on the website, but those gusts of wind could reach 40 50mph inland, as well. As i say, theres a potential for some really torrential thunderstorms, impactful weather because its so muggy and warm, thats also giving energy to these storms. Now getting towards morning, that rain is slow moving across scotland and northern ireland. It only slowly creeps its way northwards. The winds starting to abate a little bit, pushing showers ever eastwards. And look, for northern ireland, parts of scotland, its just shower after shower, but longer spells of rain for some. Before the event moves out of the way, thats storm betty, we could have a months worth of rain in some areas. But, given some sunshine through the day, particularly for the likes of eastern scotland, North East England with an offshore wind, it might feel warmer than it did on friday. And then, as we go through the evening and overnight, the showers ease off further, the winds gradually decreasing so we could have some mist and fog in southern areas in particular by sunday morning. And it will feel a little less oppressive, were losing that humidity, so a little bit more comfortable for sleeping saturday night, rather than the remainder of this night. Sunday sees fewer showers we will keep them in northern and western areas. Therell still be 1 2 getting into eastern areas, but there should be fewer showers on sunday for many parts. So perhaps the drier half of the weekend, still feeling quite warm it is august, after all. And, with High Pressure close to the south as we move into next week, we should see some more warmth here. But the lower pressure further north will maintain the risks of showers on monday, you can see some longer spells of rain coming in. Well, it is an area of the uk where we havent seen as much rain, but nevertheless east of the grampians best of the drier, brighter weather 25 26 further south. So, some warmth and some drier weather as we move into next week but, just for the remainder of the night, storm betty still with us. There are numerous warnings more details on the website. Voiceover this is bbc news. Well have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. Nicola benedetti, one of the worlds great violinists. Shes been playing since the age of four, and at 16, won the bbc Young Musician of the year award. The winner of the 2004 Young Musician of the year is Nicola Benedetti applause and cheering shes now renowned for the passion of her live concerts. For her work with contemporary composers, Including A Grammy winning collaboration with wynton marsalis, and setting up her own musicalfoundation. In this episode of this cultural life, the radio four podcast, she reveals her formative influences and experiences, and how her passion for playing was there from the start. I knew very young there was no question i wanted to play the violin. There was no question that that was what i must do and had to do and wanted to do. Nicola benedetti, welcome to this cultural life. Thank you so much for having me. Its an absolute pleasure. You were born and brought up in north ayrshire. What are your earliest musical memories at home . What memories do you have of music being played at home . The bee gees and abba. Later on, good dose of shania twain. That was all my dads taste. My mum definitely had a kenny g record. Um. Saxophone . Theyll kill me for saying all of this quite like this, but its the truth both of your parents were born in italy, werent they