FIFA Women's World Cup turns the spotlight on an unequal playing field

From prize money to exposure, players struggle against biases despite ranking higher than the men

Earlier this month, when the Indian men’s football team won the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship, beating Kuwait 5-4 in a nail-biting penalty shootout in Bengaluru, several of the country’s celebrities including top sportspersons took to social media to send congratulatory messages. Just two months earlier, a contrasting story had played out in Ahmedabad when the Gokulam Kerala FC won the Indian Women’s League (IWL), one of the country’s top women’s sporting events. The victory went practically unnoticed.

One could argue that IWL was a domestic event, unlike SAFF, where the men’s team was pitted against Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan,