Women's World Cup: FIFA president threatens TV blackout over 'unacceptable' broadcaster bids
By Tom Gott
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has threatened to block the broadcasting of the upcoming Women's World Cup after describing the bids for the rights as a 'slap in the face' to women's football.
Infantino took to Instagram to claim that broadcasters from Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and France had offered only $1m-$10m (£800,000-£8m) for the rights to show the tournament, compared with payments of $100m-$200m for the men's tournament.
The bid from Italy is said to be particularly low.
Citing a 'moral and legal obligation not to undersell' the World Cup, Infantino has demanded improved bids from broadcasters.
"Should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast the Fifa Women's World Cup into the 'big five' European countries," Infantino said at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva.
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"I call, therefore, on all players, fans, football officials, presidents, prime ministers, politicians and journalists all over the world to join us and support this call for a fair remuneration of women's football. Women deserve it, as simple as that."
To defend his argument, Infantino brought out the viewing statistics and pointed out that the difference in views between the men's and women's World Cups is nowhere near as significant as the proposed payments would suggest.
“The 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,” Infantino's Instagram message noted.
“This is a slap in the face of all the great FIFA Women’s World Cup players and indeed of all women worldwide.”
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