Fifa president Gianni Infantino has suggested soccer’s global governing body could make the Women’s World Cup a biennial event, as part of further efforts to grow the women’s game.
Speaking during the final day of World Football Summit, the 50-year-old explained that demand to host the tournament could result in it moving away from being staged every four years, as it is for the men’s equivalent.
“One idea that came in this period, and even before as well, is that maybe we should organise the Women’s World Cup every two years instead of every four years,” said Infantino.
“For the next Women’s World Cup in 2023, we had a lot of interest around the world. We’ll go to Australia and New Zealand. Then, what happens next? Should we go to South America? Or maybe Europe or North America want to organise it again? Why not South America? Why not Africa? So, we need to see what we can do,”
The 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup in France has been cited as a watershed moment for women’s soccer. Fifa announced that the competition was watched by a record-breaking 1.12 billion viewers across all platforms, up from the 750 million who tuned in for the 2015 edition in Canada.
Last year’s tournament also made a €284 million (US$321.8 million) contribution to the GDP of France, according to a report published by national soccer body the French Football Federation (FFF) and the local organising committee (LOC).
However, the financial ramifications of Covid-19 have left many concerned over the future for women’s soccer and female sport in general. Notably, Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis told SportsPro that women’s sport was being “neglected” and many authorities had returned to their “default” settings by prioritising the men’s side.
Infantino went on to address these fears, stating that FIFA had put measures in place to ensure women’s soccer would not be abandoned.
“Women’s football is a top priority for FIFA and we have created a specific task force and working group to deal with questions about women’s football in this particular crisis,” he said.
“We have committed US$1 billion from the next four years to be invested by Fifa in women’s football and, in spite of the crisis, we’ll continue with this investment of course. As part of our relief plan, we’ve invested in women’s football as well. So, I think we should not use coronavirus to put women’s football aside,"
“On the contrary, we have to help women’s football even more because it has a bright future,” he concluded.
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