FIFA president Gianni Infantino has threatened to not broadcast the 2023 women’s World Cup in some European countries due to offers he called “simply not acceptable.”
With just three months to go until the tournament kicks off in Australia and New Zealand, none of the so-called “big five” European countries — Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and France — have broadcast agreements in place.
According to Infantino, that is because broadcasters in those countries have been attempting to lowball FIFA.
“The offers from broadcasters, mainly in the ‘big five’ European countries, are still very disappointing and simply not acceptable,” he said at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva.
Infantino said that while viewing figures for the women’s World Cup are 50-60 percent of the men’s World Cup, broadcasters’ offers from the big five European countries have been 20 to 100 times lower than for the men’s World Cup.
“To be very clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” he added. “Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair (towards women and women’s football), we will be forced not to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup into the ‘Big 5’ European countries. I call, therefore, on all players (women and men), fans, football officials, Presidents, Prime Ministers, politicians and journalists all over the world to join us and support this call for a fair remuneration of women’s football. Women deserve it! As simple as that!”
For the first time, FIFA is selling the broadcast rights to the women’s World Cup separately from the men’s World Cup.
That, plus suboptimal broadcast times due to the tournament’s location, have seemingly combined to force the price down.
Moya Dodd, a former Australia international and FIFA Council member, told the Sydney Morning Herald that she wasn’t surprised over FIFA’s struggles to find suitable offers — and that it wasn’t because the women’s game is less marketable.
“Now that FIFA has decided to sell the rights separately, it’s no surprise that the buyers don’t want to pay the same big numbers twice,” Dodd said.