Former Fifa Council member Moya Dodd has criticised Gianni Infantino’s threat of a broadcast blackout in Europe for the Women’s World Cup. Infantino said that the UK, Italy, France, Spain and Germany will not be able to show the tournament unless TV companies improve their rights offers. However, Dodd claims that world football’s governing body has historically undervalued the women’s game and that this has led to broadcasters offering low sums for the rights. She said that in the past, Fifa has bundled the rights for the Women’s World Cup with other events, such as the men’s World Cup, and this has led to the women’s tournament being undervalued.
Dodd added that unbundling the rights is a good decision, but it is too late as the industry has been trained to pay big money for the men’s World Cup and treat the women’s equivalent as worthless. She also said that by using the value of the women’s rights to inflate the value of men’s football, Fifa has overlooked the fact that women have not been given equal prize money or pay.
The BBC held the sole broadcast rights in the UK for the 2019 Women’s World Cup but shared the rights for the recent men’s World Cup in Qatar with ITV. It has been reported that the BBC and ITV will share broadcasting rights for this summer’s tournament after “positive” discussions with Fifa, although no announcement has been made. Last year, the Women’s World Cup and European Championship were both added to the ‘crown jewels’ of British sporting events, which require free-to-air coverage.