OWN GOAL: Outrage After Club ‘Fined’ Goalie Wages For Getting Pregnant

A pro goalie has told how her club stopped paying her wages when she got pregnant.

Goalkeeper Alice Pignagnoli, 34, poses in undated photo. She said the footfall club Lucchese that she played for refused to pay her and will fire her because he is pregnant, in December, 2022. (@alipigna/Newsflash)

Alice Pignagnoli – who plays for ACF Lucchese Femminile in Serie C, Italy’s third division of women’s football – told local media she was angered and disappointed at being denied pay.

Pignagnoli, 34 – who is pregnant with her second child – told Italian media: “I felt hurt as a woman, mother and athlete. And also very alone, incapable, an old toy to throw away.”

She explained: “In mid-October I discovered I was pregnant for the second time.

“I communicated this to the manager of Lucchese, Mario Santoro, and I was told that the commitments made in the summer must be respected: it was no longer their intention to pay me what I’m owed.

“After what happened two years ago with Cesena, I never would have expected it.”

Pignagnoli’s then club, Cesena FC Femminile, had renewed her contract when she was seven months pregnant, in June 2020.

But just after Cesena’s decision, the rules regarding maternity for female athletes changed, local media reported.

Goalkeeper Alice Pignagnoli, 34, poses in undated photo. She said the footfall club Lucchese that she played for refused to pay her and will fire her because he is pregnant, in December, 2022. (@alipigna/Newsflash)

She said Lucchese’s decision to stop paying her wages had not changed her feelings towards her coach and teammates.

Pignagnoli said: “It’s the club that let me down. Until yesterday morning I hadn’t even been paid the first three months of this season.

“Then the news came out, and the money arrived.”

The keeper, who lives in Reggio Emilia with her husband Luca Lionetti and daughter Eva, continued: “It should be normal for a woman to dream of being a football player and having a family.

“I’m incredulous, every year there are players who get injured for a long time: a club should be ready for anything.”

Local media reported that Pignagnoli remains under her contract with Lucchese until 30th June.

She said: “I will give birth in June and from 1st July I will be released.

Goalkeeper Alice Pignagnoli, 34, poses in undated photo. She said the footfall club Lucchese that she played for refused to pay her and will fire her because he is pregnant, in December, 2022. (@alipigna/Newsflash)

“Who knows if there will be a club that will have the strength to offer me a contract.”