LYON, France, July 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. co-captain Megan Rapinoe hit out on soccer's world governing body on Saturday, saying that FIFA doesn't care much about women's game.
The American left winger, who turned 34 on Friday, told a press conference ahead of Sunday's Women's World Cup final against the Netherlands that she did welcome FIFA president Gianni Infantino's proposal to support women's soccer but thought it not enough.
Asked about what was needed globally for the women's game to build on this tournament, Rapinoe sang, out of a sudden, "Money, money, money, money, MO-NEY!"
Just on Friday, Infantino announced his support to an increase of 500 million U.S. dollars in FIFA investment in women's soccer, as well as a proposal to double women's world cup prize money to 60 million dollars.
Rapinoe, who has scored five goals including four in the knockout stage of France 2019, pointed out that this kind of support isn't nearly good enough, especially since the gap between the men's and women's prize money continues to grow.
The prize money for France 2019 is 30 million dollars and the men's World Cup prize money, which was 400 million dollars in Russia last year, is set at 440 million dollars for Qatar 2022.
Rapinoe also accused of the scheduling of two men's continental finals, the Gold Cup and the Copa America, on the same day as the quadrennial showpiece of women's soccer.
"That's a terrible idea to put everything on the same day," she said. "In every way. Obviously there's two other finals going on, but this is the World Cup final. This is like, cancel everything day. So no, I don't know how that happened."
"If you really care, are you letting the gap grow? Are you scheduling three finals on the same day? No, you're not. Are you letting federations have their teams play two games in the four years between each tournament? No, you're not," she said.
"That's what I mean about the level of care, you need attention and detail and the best minds that we have in the women's game, helping it grow every single day."
Rapinoe was leading a lawsuit by players against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay with the men's team, which was hanging there because of the women's world cup.
