FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, is proposing a five-point agenda to grow women’s football.
The world football governing body is looking to capitalize on the success of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, that he said drew more than 1 million spectators and 1 billion television viewers.
That growth starts with expanding the Women’s World Cup from 24 to 32 teams.
“It’s up to us to make sure we seize this opportunity,” Infantino said Friday at FIFA’s closing news conference, before adding “and we do something about it.”
The FIFA chief said he would like to expand the World Cup field to 32 teams as soon as possible, even if that means reopening the bidding process now underway for the 2023 World Cup.
Australia and Japan are the favorites among the countries to express interest.
The Women’s World Cup expanded from 16 to 24 teams in 2015.
Another proposal involved prize money for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“Moving ahead for the next World Cup, we will double it.
“I am very confident that we can achieve the necessary figures in order to do that,” Infantino said.
The prize money for the 2019 World Cup is $30 million, compared to $400 million for last year’s Men’s World Cup.
France, winner of that tournament, received nearly 10 times what the winner of Sunday’s final in Lyon will take home.
Having already pledged to invest $500 million in the women’s game over the next four years, Infantino said that FIFA will double that to a total of $1 billion in the same time span.
“The reserves that FIFA has are at [an] unprecedented high level.
“We have more than $2.7 billion reserves. We don’t need all this money in the Swiss banks. The Swiss banks have enough money. We can use some of it. And I will certainly ask that some of it will be reallocated for the development of women’s football,” he added.
Samson Oyedeyi
