AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The “nobody cares about women’s sport” crowd is going to hate this.
The World Cup will break even despite a significant increase in prize money, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Wednesday, generating roughly a half-billion dollars. It’s even more notable given this is the first time the women’s tournament is being treated as its own commercial entity, rather than being thrown in as an afterthought to deals for the men’s World Cup.
“To be reaching the stage where we can talk about having our (costs) being covered, we definitely took the right approach,” said Fatma Samoura, FIFA’s secretary general. “This is more sustainable than to always expect one game to be funding all our other competitions.”
The World Cup begins Thursday, with games in both New Zealand and Australia, and runs through Aug. 20. The U.S. kicks off the tournament Friday at 9 p.m. ET against Vietnam.
FIFA has long been dismissive of the women’s game, its mostly male membership unable to fathom it was sitting on an untapped gold mine. But for all his flaws, and there are many, Infantino has recognized that investing in the women’s game is good business.
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Sure enough, the women are already proving him right. FIFA bumped up the prize pool to $152 million, more than three times what it was four years ago, but is getting that money back in sponsorship and broadcast deals specific to this World Cup, along with ticket sales and merchandise.
That doesn’t mean the work is done. Far from it.
The gap between prize money for the men and women remains massive. While FIFA announced it would pay each player in the women’s tournament at least $30,000, it is relying on individual national federations to ensure that money actually reaches the players – hardly a sure thing.
And some of the TV rights deals, particularly from European broadcasters, were well below what Infantino was seeking.
But this is just the starting point, Infantino said.
“We made important steps. We’re on a path,” he said. “One thing that shouldn’t be underestimated in all of this is, more generally, the investment of the women’s game.”
Take those broadcast deals. They might not have generated the money FIFA wanted, but Infantino said soccer’s global governing body got commitments from those broadcasters to show the women’s game on a regular basis.
Visibility, Infantino said, is its own currency.
“It’s the most effective way to grow women’s football all over the world,” he said, “and that’s what we’ll focus on over next couple of years.”
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
