When it comes to the future of women’s football, there’s no bigger catalyst for growth than the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup.
FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer Sarai Bareman says the exposure the game will get during the tournament is unparalleled and it’ll be a key driver of growth in the Asia-Pacific region.
“During that World Cup month, it’s in mainstream media, it’s on the front and back pages of major print journals all over the world,” Bareman told Women’s Agenda. “So the exposure that we get at that moment is really, really important to help further grow the game.”
“It’s also a really important event because it helps to break down some of the perceptions that exist, particularly in some regions of the world around women’s sports. The Women’s World Cup helps tremendously in that respect.”
There’s now only 100 days to go until the tournament gets underway, held across locations in Australia and New Zealand. It’s the first time the Women’s World Cup has ever been hosted in the southern hemisphere, and the Asia-Pacific region. It will also be the largest women’s sport event in the world, with 650,000 tickets sold to the games so far.
“We’ve got a huge population of women and girls in the region, and it’s certainly a target to have more of those women and girls playing our sport, or getting involved in some way,” Bareman said.
“The Women’s World Cup is the number one lever that we can pull. We have more than 1.5 million people targeted to attend this event, we’re planning to have 2 billion people tuning in from around the world to watch.”
A 300 per cent increase in prize money
In another marker of growth for the women’s game at a professional level, FIFA recently announced a 300 per cent increase in the prize money fund for the women’s tournament this year.
The huge boost sees an increase from $30 million in 2019 to $150 million in 2023. The figure is 10 times what it was for the 2015 tournament, however it still sits well below the $440 million at the men’s World Cup last year.
Bareman says the prize money boost for the Women’s World Cup signals just how far we have come in leveling the playing field for women in football, and sport more broadly. She also noted that FIFA has ambitions to have equal prize money for women and men by the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
“It was very exciting to finally be able to publicly announce the huge increase in prize money for this edition,” she said. “And at the same time, we also announced our ambition to see equal prize money for male and female players at the next edition of the Women’s World Cup.”
This ambition is significant, Bareman notes, because a look at the history of the Women’s World Cup shows the game is still in its infancy.
“The first Men’s World Cup was played in 1930. That was 61 years before the first women’s World Cup was played in 1991,” she said.
“So as an event or a product, the women’s World Cup is still relatively young, it’s still developing, it’s still growing in terms of revenue generation, attendance and numbers. Although we have astounding figures, and we are the biggest female sporting event in the world, when you compare the Women’s World Cup to the Men’s World Cup, there’s still quite a big gap in terms of those sorts of figures around viewership and commercial revenue.”
Bareman says her work with the 211 member associations of FIFA gives her a unique insight into the global picture of women’s football and why it’s critical for us to care about equity for women and girls at all levels of the game, not just at the top.
“Although the Women’s World Cup is amazing, there’s only a small handful of female players globally that are able to earn a living playing our sport,” she said.
“That’s obviously something that we’re trying to change and are working on concretely through our strategy. But it gives, I would say, a bigger picture view of why that prize money is so important. It absolutely is. But broadly, you know, we’ve got 211 countries and many different stages of development, and we’ve got to rise for all of these levels.”
60 million women and girls playing football by 2026
Bareman explains that FIFA is focused on capturing the necessary data to show there is a direct link between the Women’s World Cup and the growth of the game.
“We’re trying to grow the game, we want 60 million women and girls playing our sport by 2026. We need to understand concretely what the numbers are in terms of participation of players themselves, but also coaches, referees administrators,” she says.
“Data speaks to a lot of people, particularly big organisations and companies that we want to attract and bring on board as partners. When we’re able to show them clear and concrete data around the growth and the momentum that the World Cup creates, it makes a much more attractive commercial proposition.”
Last-minute ticket sales to the Women’s World Cup have opened today. Find out more here.