2023-07-19 04:25:55
Top FIFA officials predicted on Wednesday that the Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia will break attendance and stadium attendance records, in a sign of the growth of women’s soccer.
“The eyes of the world will be here. We hope to reach a quarter of the world’s population, 2 billion people, who will watch at least one match,” said FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura at a press conference in Auckland.
Samoura spoke accompanied by the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, on the eve of the opening of the tournament in the two countries of Oceania.
“This tournament will be the first Women’s World Cup organized by two confederations, the first in the southern hemisphere, the first with 32 teams, eight of them debutants”, added the director.
The top scorer in World Cup history (man or woman) reigns from Brazil. ????????
Marta is forever a football legend. ???? #FIFAWWC pic.twitter.com/RJdRhpmEdk
— FIFA Women’s World Cup (@FIFAWWC) July 18, 2023
She guaranteed that the tickets sold for the Cup already exceed those of the tournament held four years ago, in France, with 1,375,000 already sold and many still available.
“It will be the Women’s World Cup with the biggest crowd”, commented Samoura.
But New Zealand media reported low sales of matches in their territory, unlike in Australia, the other host country. In light of this, Infantino addressed a specific message to the people of New Zealand to come and support women’s football.
Infantino was repeatedly asked how to ensure that the $30,000 prize pool awarded to players actually reaches them, but declined to respond, arguing that “money is always a touchy subject”.
However, he assured that the entity created for the first time a commercial program “that generated us interesting figures”, of 500 million dollars, which allowed us to cover the costs of the tournament.
“It will be a really unique spectacle. A lot of people still believe that women’s football is not a great game, that it’s a bad copy of men’s football, but when they see it they realize it’s fantastic,” Infantino said. “The level has increased over the last 10 years and the best players are here,” he said.
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