The Women’s World Cup is getting a 300% increase in prize money for this year’s tournament.
The $150 million fund for the first 32-team tournament is a huge boost from the 24-team edition in 2019, and 10 times more than in 2015.
Some of that prize money must be dedicated to paying the players, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Thursday after being reappointed for acclimatization until 2027.
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Infantino also again expressed his anger at the broadcasters for offering too little for television rights. He said FIFA will not sell broadcast rights to the tournament in Australia and New Zealand at the prices currently being offered.
“Women deserve much, much more than that and we are there to fight for them and with them,” she said.
Spain’s Alexia Putellas receives the FIFA best female player award during a ceremony in Paris, France, on February 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Players from around the world have been fighting for equal pay and equal respect with the men’s national teams, including the defending champion USA, Canada, France and Spain.
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Infantino has set himself the goal of equalizing the men’s and women’s prize money at their next World Cups, in 2026 and 2027, respectively, a tall order when all 32 men’s teams shared $440 million at last year’s World Cup. in Qatar.
The FIFA president angrily targeted broadcasters, some of them taxpayer-funded public service channels, who, he said, offered up to 100 times less for the rights to the women’s tournament.
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Infantino first raised the issue in October in New Zealand, insisting that FIFA would not yet sell at those prices, as women’s soccer draws audiences perhaps 20-50% less than men’s games.
«Well, offer us 20% less, 50% less. But not 100% less,» Infantino said in the closing remarks of the FIFA Congress. «That’s why we can’t do it.»