UK Government have hit out at FIFA in a joint statement over the fiasco surrounding broadcasting rights of 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have all qualified for this summer’s Women’s World Cup but the tournament is set to not be broadcast in those five European countries, following accusations from FIFA of undervaluing the rights for the tournament.
This fiasco has in-part come about due to FIFA’s decision to market the broadcasting rights for the Women’s World Cup separately from the men’s edition, having previously bundled the TV coverage rights for both competitions together as a package.
Various Ministers from across all five countries have consequently issued a joint statement with 50 days until the start of the tournament, criticising a lack of progress from FIFA in agreeing broadcast deals with interested broadcasters.
Within the statement, all five Ministers have expressed ‘concern’ over fears that the tournament won’t be broadcast within their countries, yet acknowledged ‘legimate interests and budgetary constraints’ affecting FIFA and broadcasters and consequently the “market value” of the tournament.
They went on to iterate that improving the media coverage is ‘decisive’ in the development of the ‘global visibility’ of women’s sport within all five countries, citing ‘media exposure’ as having ‘a highly significant impact’ on increased in female participation in sport.
All five Ministers concluded the statement by urging FIFA to work with broadcasters to create ‘a common path toward fair development of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer was the UK representative within the joint statement, whilst Amelie Oudea-Castera, Nancy Faeser, Andrea Abodi and Miqueln Iceta I Llorens represented France, Germany, Italy and Spain respectively.
Their joint statement reads in full as follow; ‘We, as Sports Ministers of European countries whose women’s national football teams have qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand, from the 20th of July to the 20th of August 2023, have acknowledged with concern that until now, no television rights have been attributed for the matches broadcasting in our countries.
‘We are aware of the legitimate interests and budgetary constraints pressuring both assignees and independent broadcasters, who need a viable economic model for each of them.
‘We also recognise the specific organisational constraints that are likely to affect the “market value” of the European broadcasters’ rights (period and hours of broadcasting).
‘However, we are convinced that the media coverage of the Women’s World Cup will be decisive in improving the global visibility of women’s sports in our European countries.
‘Media exposure to women’s sports has indeed a highly significant impact on the development of women’s and young girls’ sports practices.
Because of the high potential of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the sport and social issues at stake, we consider it our responsibility to fully mobilise all stakeholders, for them to quickly reach an agreement.
‘These are decisions for FIFA and broadcasters to take independently, but we know that discussions are in progress and we are confident in FIFA and independent broadcasters’ capability to find a common path toward fair development of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.’
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