FIFA President Gianni Infantino threatens a European blackout for Women’s World Cup 2023
The president of football’s leading body threatened a continent-wide blackout after receiving “unacceptable” offers for the television rights.
Gianni’s been talking again. This time, football’s leading figure has been speaking at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva, where he said that Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and France’s television offers for the upcoming Women’s World Cup were incredibly low compared with the men’s tournament, calling them a “slap in the face” for the players and “all women worldwide”.
He said that the countries had offered only $1m-$10m for the rights for the Women’s World Cup, compared with $100m-$200m for the men’s tournament. The FIFA president also attacked the reported offers through Instagram, where he said that “the viewing figures of the Fifa Women’s World Cup are 50-60% of the men’s World Cup, yet the broadcasters’ offers in the ‘Big 5′ European countries for the Fifa Women’s World Cup are 20 to 100 times lower than for the men’s FIFA World Cup.”
Infantino leads the call for action to improve women’s football
Gianni led a call to action from the onlooking world in FIFA’s battle to improve conditions for women and women’s football. “I call, therefore, on all players, 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”, said the president of the organisation that recently held the World Cup in Qatar, where it is illegal to be gay and women’s rights are severely repressed compared to Europe.
Related stories
Julio Enciso: Brighton's latest super-signing
Wolfsburg beat Arsenal to make UWCL final
English media outlet, The Guardian, has reported that sources close to Britain’s bids indicate a deal is not that far away, despite Infantino’s threat of a blackout. “To be very clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the Fifa Women’s World Cup,” Infantino said. “Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast the Fifa Women’s World Cup into the ‘big five’ European countries.”
The World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, starts on 20 July.
More women’s football:
- Barcelona 1-1 (2-1) Chelsea | UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final analysis
- Arsenal 2-3 Wolfsburg (4-5) | UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final analysis
- Alexia returns to the pitch as Barcelona sweep up the Liga F title