FIFA President Gianni Infantino has threatened a Women’s World Cup broadcast blackout in five key European nations in response to inadequate media rights proposals for the tournament.
From July 20 to August 20, Australia and New Zealand will co-host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“Broadcasters pay $100 to $200 million for the men’s FIFA World Cup, but only $1 to 10 million for the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” Infantino said.
Infantino urged broadcasters to pay a “fair” price for the tournament’s media rights, FIFA said in a statement on Monday, May 2.
He referred to the present proposals as a “slap in the face to all of the great FIFA Women’s World Cup players, and indeed to all women worldwide.”
FIFA has so far agreed to media rights deals with 156 countries for the 2023 Women’s World Cup. FIFA and the “Big 5” European countries are currently negotiating media rights for the tournament.
Infantino was referring to five European countries in his remarks: the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France.
“The offers from broadcasters, primarily in the ‘Big 5’ European countries, are still very disappointing and simply not acceptable based on four criteria,” Infantino said at a World Trade Organization panel discussion in Geneva, Switzerland.
“To be clear, it is both moral and legal for us not to oversell the FIFA Women’s World Cup.” As a result, if the offers continue to be unfair (to women and women’s football), we will be compelled to cancel the FIFA Women’s World Cup transmission into the ‘Big 5′ European nations,” Infantino continued.
“First and foremost, any rights fees paid would go directly into women’s football as part of our efforts to promote actions toward equal conditions and pay.” Second, public broadcasters, in particular, have a responsibility to encourage and invest in women’s sports,” Infantino added.
“Third, while viewing figures for the FIFA Women’s World Cup are 50-60% of those for the men’s FIFA World Cup (which are the highest of any event), broadcasters’ offers in the ‘Big 5’ European countries for the FIFA Women’s World Cup are 20 to 100 times lower.”
Infantino indicated in March that the prize money for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup would be increased by 300% to $150 million, with “plans to dedicate a specific portion of this payment, to go to football development, with another portion going to players.”
While the Women’s World Cup prize money is now three times what it was in 2019 and ten times what it was prior to Infantino’s appointment, it is still significantly less than the $440 million total prize money awarded at the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year.
