BERLIN, May 2 — Football governing body Fifa has threatened not to broadcast the 2023 women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer to five big European countries, due to disagreements on media rights.
“The offers from broadcasters, mainly in the ‘Big 5’ European countries, are still very disappointing and simply not acceptable,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said in a statement published on Monday (May 1) evening.
He did not name the countries, but according to the German News Agency (dpa), Germany is among them. Germany’s defeat to England at the women’s Euro 2022 final was the most watched programme on German television last year, with 17,952 million viewers.
Infantino said that ‘should the offers continue not to be fair (towards women and women’s football), we will be forced not to broadcast the FIFA Women’s World Cup in the ‘Big 5′ European countries.’
According to FIFA, the viewing figures of the women’s World Cup are 50 to 60 per cent of the men’s tournament, yet the broadcasters’ offers in the major European countries for the women’s event are 20 per cent to 100 per cent lower.
He added the time difference between Europe and the two host countries should not be an excuse.
“It does not make any economic sense because the viewing figures are there. Maybe, because it is in Australia and New Zealand, it is not played on prime-time in Europe, but still, it is played at 9am or 10am, so it is quite a reasonable time,” he said.
Infantino stressed that Fifa ‘did our part’ by raising the prize money to US$152 million (RM678.3 million) — three times the amount paid in 2019 and 10 times more than in 2015.
— Bernama
