Gianni Infantino, president of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), says the 2023 Women’s World Cup currently taking place in Australia and New Zealand has generated over $570 million.
While the sum represents a huge improvement in the women’s game, it is still significantly less than the 2022 Qatar World Cup which generated $7.5bn.
The FIFA boss who spoke at the FIFA Women’s Football Convention on Friday, played down suggestions for equal prize money with the men’s World Cup.
The ongoing Women’s World Cup prize pool sits at $110 million — more than three times than what was on offer for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France.
It is, however, significantly less than the $440m awarded at the 2022 men’s competition in Qatar.
During the convention, the FIFA boss insinuated that demands for equal prize money were a “slogan” that “would not solve anything”.
“Let us really go for full equality. Not just equal pay in the World Cup, which is a slogan that comes up every now and then,” he said.
“Equal pay in the World Cup, we are going in that direction already.
“But that would not solve anything. It might be a symbol but it would not solve anything, because it is one month every four years and it is a few players out of the thousands and thousands of players. We need to keep the momentum. We need to push it. We need to go for equality but we have to do it for real.
“And our opinion was, ‘Well, if we have to subsidize, we will subsidize’, because we have to do that. But actually, this World Cup generated over $570 million in revenues, and so we broke even.”
Infantino said FIFA did not lose money, adding that “we generated the second-highest income of any sport, besides of course the men’s World Cup, at a global stage”.
“More than half a billion. There are not many competitions, even in men’s football, who generate more than half a billion.”
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will come to an end on August 20, with England facing Spain in the final match.
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