FIFA has rejected several offers for the television rights of the 2023 Women's World Cup, considering them too low and urges audiovisual operators to improve their proposals: "This is not a case of price, but a testimony of the lack of willingness of the operators to pay what women's football deserves," Romy Gai, FIFA's director of partnerships and media, told Bloomberg in an interview.
Specifically, FIFA has rejected offers to broadcast the tournament in Italy, Germany, France and the UK and expects a similar result in Spain, Gai said, although he declined to say which broadcasters had submitted bids for the tournament.
Women's football enjoys great popularity and has broken attendance and audience records throughout the world. The last World Cup was a real turning point: “The viewing figures show that the 2019 Women's World Cup in France was a catalyst for change in terms of television audience. A combined 1.12 billion viewers watched the final between the United States and the Netherlands, which became the most-watched FIFA Women's World Cup match in history."
The last edition of the Champions League was watched by a record 3.6 million viewers and last summer's European Championship also shattered all viewer records on and off the pitch. “We know that the opportunity for women's football is there,” Gai said. "Now, together, we need to capture her."
There is still a big discrepancy between payouts for broadcasting men's and women's tournaments, says Gai, explaining that in the UK, broadcasters pay for a female competition roughly 2% of what they pay for the male equivalent, despite the fact that the audience of women's competitions is around 20% of that of men.
Next summer's World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand. Due to the time difference, the matches will be early in the morning in Europe, which will make it difficult for them to reach a larger audience. The championship will start on July 20 and Spain will know the calendar this Saturday (8:30 a.m.) when the draw for the group stage of the final phase is made.
