There’s a potential TV blackout of this year’s FIFA women’s World Cup in five major European countries, if broadcasters don’t increase their offers for rights.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was speaking at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva, said “disappointing” offers from the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France were a “slap in the face” of the players and “all women worldwide”.
“Broadcasters especially public broadcasters funded by taxpayers’ money should put their action behind their words because they rightfully criticise football organisations or other sporting organisations for not paying equally women and men,” he said.
Infantino emphasised that all the funds would go back into women’s football and therefore he had a “moral and legal obligation” to ensure there was no underselling of the rights.
The FIFA boss said European broadcasters had been offered between $1.5 million and $15 million for the rights compared to the $150 million to $300 million offered for the Men’s World Cup.
According to FIFA data, the last Women’s World Cup, which was held in France in 2019, saw a combined 1.12 billion viewers, with almost half of total viewing hours being from Europe.
Women’s football is on the rise globally and this got Infantino, back in March, announcing a prize money increase for this year’s World Cup.
The prize money will increase by 300% to $150 million with “plans to dedicate a specific portion of this payment, to go to football development with another portion to go to players.”
While the Women’s World Cup prize money is now three times the 2019 figure, it is still considerably lower than the $440 million total prize money awarded at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year.
It’s 78 days to go until Australia and New Zealand co-host the global showpiece, which kicks-off on July 20 to August 20 , 2023.
More than half a million tickets have already been sold.
