FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed this Monday that his governing body will be forced not to broadcast the Australia-New Zealand 2023 Women’s World Cup if it “does not reasonably proceed” with offers for audiovisual transmission rights. The five largest European countries are Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Infantino this Monday in Geneva (Switzerland) reiterated his call to television channels to “follow the example” of the organization he runs and “pay a fair price” for the audiovisual rights of the Women’s World Cup, stressing that “revenues will increase”. Women’s football needs to be fully reinvested”.
‘Making Trade Marks for Women!’ (Make Trade Work for Women), held at the World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, where she was accompanied by its Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, FIFA said.
The FIFA president said the system already set a precedent by “increasing the prize money awarded to the 32 teams for the 2023 Women’s World Cup to $152 million, triple that of 2019 and ten times that of 2015.” Before he was elected as the highest representative of the body.
However, Infantino added that “FIFA still had to sell the media rights for the match to some important markets because the bids were undervalued.”
“Offers from TV networks, mainly in the European ‘Big 5’, are very disappointing and unacceptable according to the four criteria,” he said.
“First, 100% of royalties paid will go directly to women’s football, in our efforts to promote equal status and equal pay. Second, public broadcasters, in particular, have a duty to promote and invest in women’s sport.” Infantino said.
“Third, viewership for the Women’s World Cup is 50-60% of that of men (in turn, the highest of any event), but offers by broadcasters in five major European countries for women are 20 to 100 times lower than for men,” he added.
FIFA points out, “Broadcasters pay between 100 and 200 million dollars for the men’s World Cup, and they only pay between 1 and 10 million for the women. This is a slap in the face of all the best players at the World Cup. Feminine and, indeed, all women in the world”.
“To be clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the World Cup. So, if the concessions continue to be unfair (for women and women’s football), we will be forced not to broadcast the Women’s World Cup. 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 for fair pay in women’s football. Women deserve it! Simple as that,” she added.
The FIFA president also said that the time difference with Europe should not be an excuse for lesser concessions. “It doesn’t make any economic sense because the audience figures are there. Maybe because it’s in Australia,” he said.
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