Infantino harshly criticizes the “disappointing” offers from television networks to broadcast this year’s Women’s Soccer World Cup
“While they pay between 100 and 200 million dollars for the men’s World Cup, they only offer between 1 and 10 million for the women’s,” he says.
Gianni Infantino stated that if the offers for the audiovisual transmission rights of the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand “they are still not fair”, the body that directs will be forced not to broadcast it in the five major European countries, that is, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Infantino reiterated this Monday in Geneva (Switzerland) his call to the television channels to “follow the example” of the organization he directs and “pay a fair price” for the audiovisual rights of the Women’s World Cup, and stressed that “the income will be fully reinvested in women’s football”.
The president of the FIFA made these claims during the round table ‘Making Trade Score for Women!’ (make trade work for women), held at the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva and in which he was accompanied by the director general of the latter, the Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealareports FIFA.
VERY “DISAPPOINTING” OFFERS
The president of FIFA stated that this body “It had already set an example by increasing the prize money to be distributed among the 32 teams in the 2023 Women’s World Cup to $152 million, triple that of 2019 and ten times more than in 2015.“, before his election as the body’s highest representative.
However, Infantino said that “FIFA still had to sell the media rights to the tournament to some important markets because the bids were undervalued.”
“The offers of the television networks, mainly in the European ‘Big 5’, continue to be very disappointing and they’re just not acceptable by four criteria,” he said.
“Firstly, 100% of the royalties paid would go directly to women’s football, in our effort to promote equal conditions and pay. Second, public broadcasters, in particular, have a duty to promote and invest in women’s sport,” Infantino said.
“In third place, the audience figures for the women’s World Cup are 50-60% of those for the men’s (which, in turn, are the highest of any event), and yet the bids from broadcasters in the big five European countries for women’s are 20 to 100 times lower than for men,” added.
DISPARITY WITH RESPECT TO THE MEN’S WORLD CUP
FIFA notes that, “while broadcasters pay between 100 and 200 million dollars for the men’s World Cup, they only offer between 1 and 10 million for the women’s. This is a slap in the face to all the great players in the Women’s World Cup and, indeed, to all the women in the world.”
“To be very clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the World Cup. Therefore, if the offers continue to be unfair (towards women and women’s football), we will be forced not to broadcast the Women’s World Cup in the big five European countries,” Infantino said.
“Therefore, I call on all players (women and men), fans, football officials, presidents, prime ministers, politicians and journalists around the world to join us in supporting this call in favor of fair remuneration for women’s football. Women deserve it! It’s that simple,” she added.
The President of the FIFA He also added that the time difference with Europe should not be an excuse for low offers. “It doesn’t make any economic sense because the viewing figures are there. Maybe because it’s in Australia,” he said.