The Women’s World Cup (WWC) is underway, fueling the dreams of fans and marketers around the world.
FIFA is projecting a complete audience of greater than 2 billion people (a rise of not less than 800,000 from the 2019 tournament) and is pricing ads and sponsorships accordingly. The soccer organization expects to earn $807 billion this yr from ticket sales, television broadcasting, marketing, hospitality and licensing rights.
If FIFA does hit its income and audience goals, it’ll be despite lots of its own actions.
Most notably, it awarded the tournament to Australia and New Zealand, that are 9+ hours ahead of Europe — the world’s biggest soccer audience. The last time FIFA did something like this was in 2002 when the men’s tournament was held in Japan and South Korea. Audiences that yr were 30% smaller than for 2006 when it was held in Germany.
In the U.S., a hotbed of girls’s soccer whose national team has won the tournament a record 4 times, the time zone difference is 15 to 19 hours.
Competition for viewers
Another European audience problem: This yr’s WWC is starting a month later than usual and runs through Aug. 20. This means it’s overlapping with the start of the English Premier League which is the world’s premier soccer league.
All this explains why FIFA, which expected to get $300 million for the tournament’s broadcast rights, “will accept closer to $200 million,” in accordance with The Wall Street Journal. New broadcast rights are set to bring in “a few third of the $150 million it had expected.” Also, the organization hoped its take care of European Broadcasting Union would bring in $65 million, however it wound up being “about half that,” per the WSJ.
However, having the WWC in New Zealand and Australia means it’s just one to 3 hours ahead of Japan. The nation’s large population (like just about everyone outside the U.S.) is wealthy, soccer-mad and won the 2011 WWC. Perfect fit, right?
The broadcast rights for Japan were only sold every week ago. This means each FIFA and NHK, the Japanese state broadcaster, missed out on the very lucrative pre-tournament promoting.
The excellent news
All that said, FIFA has signed up 30 different brand sponsors for this WWC. In 2019 they only had 12. Also, women’s soccer fans are incredibly dedicated to the sport and its players — sometimes even shunning the men’s game.
In the U.K., women’s soccer basically and the Women’s Super League (WSL) are incredibly popular. According to the Women’s Sports Trust:
- 8.4 million individuals who watched live WSL football in 2022 didn’t watch any live Premier League football that yr. That’s up 3.3 million from 2021.
- 1.8 million watched the Women’s Euros but didn’t watch the men’s FIFA World Cup
In the U.S., the National Women’s Soccer League drew greater than 1,000,000 in-person fans last yr. That’s up nearly 400,000 from 2021 and greater than every other top women’s soccer league. In 2019, 14.3 million viewers tuned into the FIFA Women’s World Cup final match. They created 17 million more TV impressions and 20% more viewers than the 2018 men’s World Cup.
This yr’s WWC is the first to feature 32 teams, eight greater than in 2019. A promising sign: As of last week, nearly 1.4 million tickets had already been sold for 64 matches in the two nations, surpassing the record total for the tournament set eight years ago in Canada.
FIFA vs. Women
For a few years, FIFA was condescending and dismissive when it got here to handling women’s soccer. For example, in 2013 FIFA’s then-president Sepp Blatter said, “We now have three ladies on the board. Say something, ladies. You are all the time speaking at home, say something now.” Believe it or not, that’s considered one of the less objectionable things Sepp said during his 22 years running FIFA.
This began to alter in 2015 when Blatter and 13 other FIFA executives were indicted for corruption and latest leadership was put in place. It still has an extended strategy to go, as might be seen in the prize money awarded for this yr’s WWC:
Champion
- $4,290,000 for his or her association
- $270,000 per player/23 players per team = $6,210,000
2nd place:
- $3,015,000 for his or her association
- $195,000 per player = $4,485,000
third place
- $2,610,000 for his or her association
- $180,000 per player = $4,140,000
4th place
- $2,455,000 for his or her association
- $165,000 per player = $3,795,000
Teams that don’t make it past the first round
- $1,560,000 for his or her association
- $30,000 per player = $690,000
Total prize money for 2023 WWC
- $110 million (up $80 million from 2019)
Average amount earned per dollar vs. 2022 Men’s World Cup
- $0.25 (up ~$0.17 from 2019).
While that’s a considerable inequality, what’s worse will not be all the players even get that much: 29% of players competing in the Confederation Championships for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and in the 2022 UEFA Women’s European Championship reported not receiving any payment from their national team.
FIFA steps up?
In June, FIFA announced a deal that might guarantee payments for all players at the tournament. “All participating players will receive guaranteed remuneration for his or her achievements at the tournament.”
That’s a win for FIFA, right?
It was until every week ago when FIFA president Gianni Infantino said the guarantee is off: “Whatever payments we do, we’ll undergo the associations, after which the associations will, in fact, make the relevant payments to their very own players.” The alleged reason: FIFA couldn’t handle the tax and residency-related complications.
Forbes’ Kelly Phillips Erb hit that with a red card, writing:
“Many multinational firms handle global payroll issues regularly. It seems relatively remarkable that an organization of FIFA’s size could administer payroll for its global employees across 60 countries annually—but not the 736 soccer players at the tournament from just 32 countries for a tournament that happens once every 4 years.”
Can all the passion and interest in women’s soccer outplay the WWC’s many problems? Stay tuned.
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