FIFA has announced it will spend heavily when it decides to double the sponsorship for women’s football to $ 1 billion in the next 4 years after being approved by the council.
The decision was announced by FIFA President Gianni Infantino after a board meeting held in Shanghai (China) on October 24. This is seen as fulfilling the promise of the head of FIFA when he declared in June: “We need to be a little brave and a little daring if we want to take women’s football to a higher level”.
FIFA’s move has received a great response from world fans amid gender equality disputes in men’s and women’s football. The latest is a lawsuit by the American girls that require the federation to pay the income and meet the same training conditions as the male players. On October 23, nearly 200 Spanish women’s football players also announced they would strike to demand a raise and competition conditions. Therefore, with this investment, FIFA will need member federations and continental federations to address issues that may affect women’s football at the national level.
This “bold spending” of FIFA this time in the Forward 2.0 program aims at criteria such as organizing national women’s football tournament, regularly, lasting for 6 months and must have at least 10 teams competing. and played at least 90 matches; a national women’s team playing at least 4 official matches or friendlies in a calendar year; organize tournaments for women across the country, ensure standards, often at least two years old for women…
In fact, the decision was announced after the unexpected success of the 2019 women’s football World Cup in France in July. “More than a sports event, the FIFA World Cup 2019 is a cultural phenomenon that attracts many people. The media attention is bigger than ever and provides a platform for flourishing women’s football. Our breaking the goal of 1 billion viewers (across all platforms) shows the appeal of women’s matches and, in fact, if we promote and broadcast world-class football, even if played by men or women, fans will always want to watch”, FIFA President Infantino said about the success of this year’s women’s football World Cup.
The success that led to a major investment in FIFA women’s football will surely bring a lot of results when the salary, bonus, facilities, competition conditions will definitely be improved. The stature of the women’s soccer World Cup was also expanded when FIFA decided to increase from 24 to 32 competing teams at the event in 2023.
On this occasion, FIFA also approved that China will host the Club World Cup for the first time expanded to 24 teams from 2021. According to AFP, this is considered a push to help China towards its ambition to host the 2030 World Cup finals.