FIFA Upset With Underselling Of Women's WC, Threatens Broadcast Blackout

The FIFA President recently got furious at the petty offers that the European countries extended for broadcast rights of the Women's World Cup. The President said that he was disappointed to see such a difference between men and women's football.

Women's sports always get less importance than men, whether it is cricket or football. People gather in large crowds and pay hefty amounts to watch men play but not women. That is the reason why women's sports always face unequal sponsors and funds. A similar situation was witnessed with the upcoming Women's FIFA World Cup whose rights were being sold and the offers that came for them were really less compared to men's football World Cup. This upset Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, who threatened Europe with a broadcast blackout.

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FIFA Women World Cup Broadcast Blackout

Infantino reportedly said that the media rights offers made by European countries, specifically the Big 5 that includes France, Britain, Spain, Germany and Italy, were unacceptable and disappointing. It was sad to see that while the Men's World Cup would get offers in the range $100-200 million, Women's World Cup's media rights got offers ranging between $1 million to $10 million only. Infantino considered it a slap in the face of women's sports and disrespectful towards women players.

He also said that if the Women's World Cup will continue to receive such disappointing offers ahead as well, FIFA will not broadcast the matches in the 'Big 5'. To defend their low offers to Women's World Cup media rights, the Big 5 countries said that it was because the matches will be held outside prime time watching hours according to the European market.

However, Infantino reportedly refused to undersell the tournament in any scenario and said that the prime time issue is no excuse to offer such a low amount for media rights of the tournament. Though not prime time, the matches will be played between 9 to 10 am in Europe which is a reasonable time. FIFA Women's World Cup commences on July 20 and will be co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. In 2019, the tournament recorded a viewership of 1.12 billion on all platform.