Europe’s top soccer nations face a broadcast blackout for this year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand unless media improve on their “disappointing” offers for the rights, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.
Offers from the ‘big five’ European countries – Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – were not acceptable to football’s world governing body and a “slap in the face” of the players and “all women worldwide”, Infantino said.
“To be very clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” Infantino said at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva.
“Therefore, 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.”
The World Cup, being played in nine cities across Australia and New Zealand, kicks-off in Auckland and Sydney on July 20.
Infantino said broadcasters had offered only $US1 million-$US10 million for the rights, compared to $US100m-$US200m paid for the men’s World Cup.
Women’s World Cup matches will be held outside prime-time viewing hours for European markets but Infantino said that was no excuse.
“It’s 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.
Some 1.12 billion viewers tuned into the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France across all platforms, according to a FIFA audit of the tournament.
