Football is a Battlefield

We are strong

No one can tell us we're wrong

Searching our hearts for so long

Both of us knowing

Love (Football) is a battlefield

• Pat Benetar

Reading all the news around the Women’s World Cup this song kept coming into my head. All the players and people that work around women’s football do it for the love of the game without a doubt, but it is always a battlefield. You feel like you are making progress and moving forward but then realize there is a battle on a whole different front that you didn’t even realize was taking place.?

While the tournament has kicked off with a bang and the on field show has been surprising and exciting in the best possible way. The gray clouds around it are dampening the mood just slightly. So that we can all get back to the real stars of the game, the players, I wanted to first touch upon some of the major issues we have seen so far.?

FIFA’s threat that there would be a blackout of the tournament did not come to fruition as they reached a deal with the European Broadcasting Union just in time to allow free-to-air TV channels in Western Europe to broadcast the Women's World Cup, ending a dispute over rights fees. The deal also includes digital and radio rights, as well as a commitment from the EBU to air at least one hour of women’s soccer content a week. But this deal along with others came at a supposed lost, according to a Wall Street Journa l report, which valued the rights at around $300 million, but FIFA only received $200 million. It is hard to say that this is truly a negative outcome though. With all things considered I feel that this is proof that women’s football has value and that the market is starting to see it. One has to consider that this is the first time the rights have ever been separated from the men’s tournament. It was quite unknown what broadcasters would pay for women’s stand alone rights especially as the biggest markets are North America and Europe and the time differences for this tournament made the bidding process extremely difficult. One could argue that the lead up time to selling the rights was not planned out well. Asking the media to pay large amounts in the middle of Q2 when they hadn't budgeted for these rights must have been a nightmare for any CFO.?

When you take into account all these issues I think we can be happy with what was sold and thus far and the on field product has made those fees well worth it.?

Infantino has stated publicly that this iteration of the tournament is scheduled to break even which is fantastic considering that the prize money is 3x that of the last tournament and players have been ‘guaranteed’ at least $30,000 each no matter where their team finishes, with the players on the winning squad each earning $270,000. A huge amount when one takes into consideration the global average for a player is $14,000 a year. However, I’d like to dive deeper into this and where many players have spoken out against their federations over the sum and bonus money. Some federations, like The FA, say they will only give this money to the players, even though the players were in negotiations before this money even came to the table. While other federations have not even broached the topic. And FIFA recently announced the reality of the situation, the money is earmarked for the players but once FIFA gives the money to the federations it is up to their discretion whether or not the money actually arrives to the players, this issue has also been seen in the men’s game and teams have fought their federations during the Men’s World Cup as well. FIFA is not a policing agency but there must be some form of checks and balances that can be implemented to make sure the money goes where it needs to.?

Hope at the end of confusion…

Infantino has mentioned that he wants to create an equal prize pool for the next World Cup cycles in 2026 and 2027. Is it too good to be true? I don’t think so. 2026 is already guaranteed to be in North America, if the US and Mexico’s joint bid for 2027 wins, it marks the perfect opportunity to really bring equity to the game and build a business plan behind the women’s game on solid ground. Each tournament could work together and build off one another, rather than the present strategy of all time, money and energy going into the men’s tournament and then once that’s finished people remembering the women’s is happening.?

What event do you think? had the biggest impact for the future of the women’s game this month? Let me know in the comments.