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Navratilova: "It's shocking." BBC Panorama
Gender Pay Gap

BBC pay McEnroe 'at least 10 times' more than me for Wimbledon work, claims Navratilova

“John’s role is of a different scale, scope and time commitment,” BBC bosses insist.

TENNIS GREAT MARTINA Navratilova has claimed that John McEnroe gets paid at least 10 times more money than her for their respective contributions to BBC’s Wimbledon coverage.

As part of a BBC Panorama investigation into the gender pay gap in Britain, due to be broadcast on Monday evening, Navratilova revealed that she gets paid ‘about £15,000′ for her work during the tournament.

Figures publicly disclosed by the broadcaster last year revealed that McEnroe’s salary falls within the £150,000-£200,000 bracket.

“It’s hard to really compare exactly because some people work a little longer days, maybe a few more programmes, whatever, but overall it was a shock because John McEnroe makes at least £150,000,” Navratilova said. “I get about £15,000 for Wimbledon.

“And unless John McEnroe’s doing a whole bunch of stuff outside of Wimbledon, he’s getting at least 10 times as much money than I am for very comparable work.”

She added: “[I'm] not happy, needless to say. I mean, it’s shocking. Really, if this happens to me, you know, for me it’s a part-time job, it’s two weeks of my life.

“But for the women that work there full-time, maybe the discrepancy’s not that large, but it adds up over a lifetime, it adds up to an amazing amount of money.

“It’s extremely unfair and it makes me very angry for the other women that go through this.”

It was put to Navratilova that “the BBC might say, ‘Well, John McEnroe does more hours, or he’s on air longer’.

“Ten times as much?” she responded. “I don’t think so.”

Panorama’s review of BBC’s Wimbledon coverage in 2017 found that McEnroe made about three times as many appearances as Navratilova.

In a statement released to Panorama, BBC Sport said: “John and Martina perform different roles in the team, and John’s role is of a different scale, scope and time commitment.

“He is contracted to be on call for the BBC across the entire tournament… Gender isn’t a factor.”

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