Women's FA Cup: Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall questions whether prize fund is 'good enough'

Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall says the increase in this year's Women's FA Cup prize fund is "good" but questioned whether it is "good enough".

The fund has doubled from last year to £6m with the winners of the final receiving £430,000.

"The growth of the game is tremendous at the moment but you still have a very big difference between the men's and women's prize money," said Eidevall.

In the men's FA Cup, the winners currently receive £2m.

The women's prize fund was increased 10-fold last season from £300,000 to £3m and Sue Campbell, the FA's director of women's football, said this latest increase is a "positive step" towards a "long-term ambition" of achieving equal prize money.

The increase will come into effect from the third round onwards, where second-tier sides enter the competition.

"The FA is responsible for the growth and development of both men's and women's football and in the country," said Eidevall.

"If they have a big difference in [prize money] then that affects how people see and value the two different competitions as well. Any increase is good, but I'm not sure it's good enough."

Eidevall also highlighted the new broadcast deal between the USA's domestic football league - the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) - which was announced on Thursday and is reportedly, external worth $240m (£196.4m) to the league over four years.

It marks a huge increase on the previous three-year deal which was worth $4.5m (£3.7m).

"I think you have to zoom out and if you zoom out and see what's the increase in the NWSL broadcast deal that got announced yesterday the growth of the game is not linear at the moment, it is exponential," added Eidevall.

"I think that's where decision-makers and deal-makers need to be aware of that."

Eidevall said he would welcome a "plan" or "trajectory" for the women's FA Cup to reach equal prize money with the men's competition.

"Someone who has a plan to say 'where do we see this going in the next five years?', or 'is this just going to be something made on a year by year basis?" he said.

"What is that based on and what investments will be made in the women's FA Cup in order to raise the level of competition where it can generate more revenue as well?"