FIFA President Threatens Women’s World Cup Broadcasting Blackout
- Scarlett Collins
- May 9, 2023
- 4 min read
The 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is fast approaching but many broadcasting deals are still yet to be settled. FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, keeps himself in the controversial spotlight after his recent announcement that there could be a Women’s World Cup blackout in Europe due to poor broadcasting offers. Infantino stated that bids from England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain were so low that it should be considered a “slap in the face” to the players. A potential reason for this could be the fact that these games would take place in the morning in Europe, which is not a desirable broadcasting time. But this excuse falls short when you remember that for the Qatar World Cup England played games at an array of times including a group-stage game against Iran at 1 pm GMT. Infantino took to Instagram to write a heated post expressing his opinion and how low the offers truly are compared to the men’s game.
“[T]he viewing figures of the FIFA Women’s World Cup are 50-60% of the men’s World Cup (which in turn are the highest of any event), 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,”
The lack of value placed by these nations on the Women’s World Cup is severely disappointing considering the growth and status of women’s football in their respective countries. As the sport continues to grow this development must be seen in all areas such as broadcasting, sponsorship, and research to provide increased awareness and accessibility. Furthermore, the FIFA President expressed that it was the organisation’s “moral and legal obligation” to not undersell the tournament but given the recent men’s tournament in Qatar, LGBTQ+ armband uproar, and only dropping the sponsorship of Visit Saudi due to backlash it is hard not to be cynical. Former FIFA Council member Moya Dodd has criticised the blackout threat, claiming that FIFA has historically undervalued the women’s game and that "It's a bit rich to scold broadcasters for underpaying,". It must be noted that the football governing board have made steps forward, albeit minimal, regarding their support of women’s football. They have agreed to increase the prize money to $110m from $30m in France 2019 (however there are now 32 teams instead of 24). Whilst this is positive news it is undermined when the prize money was four times the amount for the 32 men’s teams in Qatar highlighting how far we still have to go. Also, to entice better offers, Infantino has stated that all TV revenue for the tournament would be reinvested in women’s football. Investment is essential to ensure that the development of the game keeps moving in a positive direction. However, Moya Dodd has come forward deeming this to be outrageous as it “overlooks the fact that the value of the women's rights have until now been used to inflate the value of men's football.".
This will also be the first Women’s World Cup under FIFA’s overhauled commercial structure where the women’s game is ‘unbundled’ from the men’s, allowing brands to form exclusive and dedicated partnerships in women’s football. This is a huge development as the bundling led to the women’s tournament being undervalued and simply a side attraction. Dodd spoke to the Sydney Morning Herald where they stated:
"Effectively, the industry was trained to pay big money for the men's World Cup and treat the women's equivalent as worthless. At the same time, the women were told they didn't deserve prize money or equal pay because they didn't bring the revenues.”
Whilst FIFA’s outrage at the low bids is justified you cannot help but feel that their refusal to unbundle the rights sooner has led to this. The governing body before this decision placed no value on the women’s game and the money these broadcasters are offering is what they believe the tournament is worth after decades of underinvestment and neglectful commercial strategies. Additionally, the threat feels empty and counterproductive considering a blackout in England and Germany would be disastrous for viewing figures where the two nations had a combined audience of 35 million to watch the 2022 Euros final. Moreover, why are they planning on punishing the fans for something that is out of their control? FIFA has failed to offer a solution to this issue and instead opted for an aggressive approach in preaching for equality which is something they have historically (and continuously) neglected. For example, for the Qatar World Cup FIFA reached an agreement where they streamed the entire tournament for free in Brazil on their streaming service FIFA+ but where is this offer now? Surely offering fans of these European countries a free streaming service is a better way to bite back at the poor broadcasting offers than a complete blackout.
Unfortunately, it appears that broadcasters will continue to devote little money to covering women's sports. Recent figures show that the justification of low revenue and value has grown stale and outdated. For example, UEFA released a report on the 2022 Women’s Euros which stated that the final is estimated to have a cumulative live viewership of 50 million globally, host cities received a £81m boost in economic activity and the tournament generated 453.3 million cumulative social interactions. Hopefully, Infantino’s broadcaster call-out will be effective at ensuring better bids are received and also to help encourage people to demand more from broadcasters, sponsors, and sports governing boards. Whilst it may seem like a constant uphill battle it is also the only way to campaign for change. Women’s football has historically and continuously been neglected but the recent Euros has seen it enter the limelight. The increased attention to the women’s game should be celebrated but it is important to continue to highlight the injustice and disparity that is still occurring.
Written by Scarlett
Comments