Moya Dodd, a former member of the FIFA Council, has stated that the governing organization is to blame for the event’s historically low status and has criticized Gianni Infantino’s threat to blackout broadcasts of the Women’s World Cup in Europe this year. Dodd also stated that FIFA is responsible for the competition being historically devalued.
For the first time, the television rights to the women’s tournament will be sold separately from the rights to the men’s tournament. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has warned that Europe’s “Big 5” nations risk being shut out of the event if broadcasters do not raise their “unacceptable” proposals.
He further mentioned that broadcasters from Britain, Spain, France, Germany, and Italy had only offered between one and ten million dollars for the rights, whereas the men’s World Cup had received between one hundred and two hundred million dollars, respectively.
Dodd, a former member of the Australian national team, said that the broadcast business had devalued the women’s event since FIFA had sold the rights combined with the rights to the men’s tournament.
“Now that FIFA has decided to sell the rights separately, it’s no surprise that the buyers don’t want to pay the same big numbers twice,” Dodd told the Sydney Morning Herald. “It’s no surprise that the buyers don’t want to pay the same big numbers twice.”
“In practice, the industry was conditioned to spend a significant amount of money for the men’s World Cup and to disregard the women’s equivalent as being of little value. At the same time, it was communicated to the female participants that they did not merit prize money or equal compensation because they were not the ones responsible for bringing in the earnings.
“In all honesty, that is very absurd. The fact that the value of women’s rights has been exploited up until now to inflate the value of men’s football is ignored by FIFA’s recent announcement that all of the profits from women’s football will be directed directly toward women’s football.
Dodd said that rather than scaring broadcasters, FIFA should examine all of its bundled deals in order to determine how much of the overall budget should be allocated to the women’s game.
“If in fact the Women’s World Cup gets 50-60% of the viewers of the men’s, as FIFA says, that should amount to a sum in the billions,” she continued. “If the Women’s World Cup gets 50% of the viewers of the men’s, that should amount to a sum in the billions.”
The Women’s World Cup will take place in Australia and New Zealand from the 20th of July through the 20th of August.