“Women deserve much more”: Re-elected President of FIFA, Infantino wants to rebalance remuneration between men and women

Freshly re-elected as head of FIFA until 2027 at a congress in Rwanda on Thursday, Gianni Infantino expressed his desire to rebalance remuneration between football players.

This is the new fight Gianni Infantino. Re-elected FIFA President on Thursday with a flattering financial record, he wants to establish equal pay for men and women at the World Cups by 2027.

For the Women’s World Cup 2023 which will be held from July 20 to August 23 in New Zealand and Australia, FIFA will distribute $110 million in prize money to players from the 32 competing nations, compared to $30 million in 2019. In total, the competition will offer $152 million total financial compensation (prize money, club benefits and preparation), ten times more than in 2015.

Figures still very far from the 440 million dollars in prize money shared by the 32 men’s nations of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. As the winner, Argentina pocketed $42M (France $30M).

Broadcasters and sponsors targeted by Infantino

But whose fault is it? Gianni Infantino found his culprit. This Thursday, he pointed the finger at the responsibility of broadcasters in this financial chasm between women and men. The Swiss-Italian leader regrets that channels, sometimes belonging to the public service, allow themselves to offer 100 times less to broadcast women’s competitions. “Women deserve much, much more than that. We are here to fight for them and with them”, he hammered. Especially since in recent years, TV audiences for women’s football matches have been quite good.

The FIFA President has assured that the TV rights for the 2023 World Cup will not be sold at past prices. The latter mentioned female audiences “20 to 50% lower” to those of men. “Well, offer 20% less, 50% less. But not 100 times less”he protested. “Do you think this is normal? »

The FIFA President would thus be confident to offer a equal financial allocations for men and women for the 2026 World Cup (men) and 2027 World Cup (women).

Finally no “Visit Saudi” sponsor

Furthermore, Gianni Infantino announced that Saudi Arabia’s tourist office, Visit Saudi, would not sponsor the 2023 World Cup. The idea had provoked strong criticism. The American striker Alex Morgan spoke of a “morally illogical” choice while the Australian Football Federation spoke of a partnership which “does not correspond to our collective vision of the tournament and does not meet our expectations”.

“There were discussions with Visit Saudi, but they ultimately did not lead to a contract. So it’s a storm in a teacup.”explained the FIFA president, adding that future business opportunities with the Gulf countries in women’s football cannot be ruled out.

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