In poker over the rights for the Women’s World Cup, FIFA President Gianni Infantino is threatening the big European soccer nations with a TV blackout. Should the offers “still not be fair”, the world association will be “forced” not to broadcast the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20 to August 20) “to the ‘Big 5’ European countries,” said FIFA -Boss at a panel discussion in Geneva.
“To put it bluntly, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the Women’s World Cup,” added Infantino, who described previous offers as “very disappointing” and “simply unacceptable.” This is “a slap in the face to all the great players and all women worldwide”. With his criticism, the FIFA boss also referred to the German TV market.
Infantino reiterated that 100 percent of the rights revenue would go to women’s football, as FIFA is committed to “equal conditions and equal pay”. In addition, the public broadcasters have “the obligation to promote and invest in women’s sport”. According to Infantino, offers for the women’s World Cup in the five major European countries are 20 to 100 times lower than for the men’s tournament.
Quota record in 2022
For the first time, the world association in Germany is awarding the rights to the women’s world championships separately and not in an overall package with the men’s world championships. ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky was recently surprised at FIFA’s approach to the award.
ARD and ZDF had “placed an offer in line with the market,” he told the FAZ. In addition, no television broadcaster is preventing FIFA from “appropriately distributing the total proceeds from the marketing of its media rights to its various women’s and men’s competitions on an equal basis”.
The German team’s European Championship games were broadcast on the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF last year. The final against England was the most-watched sports program in 2022 with an average audience of 17.9 million people on ARD.
