Gianni Infantino marks ten years today as the President of FIFA, a reign that has seen the game of football transform both on and off the field. From governance, sporting and the football business perspectives, the beautiful game has witnessed rapid growth .
One of the areas that have received attention under Infantino’s leadership is women’s football. FIFA has fundamentally changed the governance, scale and ambition of women’s football, embedding it as a strategic priority across the organisation.
FIFA’s investment into women’s football has been strategic and made far reaching impact in the development of the game across the world.
In 2015, FIFA allocated USD 15 million in total prize money and financial contributions for the Women’s World Cup in Canada. Overall, FIFA invested approximately USD 22 million specifically in women’s football development programs between 2015 and 2018. Today, FIFA is significantly expanding its investment in women’s football, driven by a goal of reaching 60 million female players by 2027 and accelerating the professionalization of the game. The ambitious target is underpinned by 13 development programmes with all 211 FIFA Member Associations (MAs) eligible to apply for support from world football’s governing body.
Under Infantino, Women’s World Cup prize money has increased significantly and the direction is clear; it will continue to grow. The 2023 Women’s World Cup, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, broke even after generating more than $570 million in revenue. With the 2027 edition around the corner, it is expected more money will be generated. The 2031 edition will expand to accommodate 48 teams thus creating more revenue streams for the game.
When Infantino came to power ten years ago, he saw an urgent need to educate human resource attached to women’s football and several capacity building programs have been extended to all the 211 members.
FIFA has significantly expanded women’s football development programmes, investing in grassroots, coaching education, refereeing and high-performance environments to ensure sustainable growth beyond major tournaments.
In order to empower women football clubs, several workshops have been conducted the latest being the commercial strategy where Uganda and Romania are pioneers. Uganda was chosen as one of two countries to pilot the Women’s topflight league commercial strategy giving an opportunity to the East African nation alongside Romania to learn from Tigres from Mexico on how they have turned around their fortunes and are building a commercially viable entity.
In terms of competitions, FIFA under Infantino has created several tournaments to offer platforms for women to show their adeptness. The FIFA Women’s Club World Cup, the FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup and the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup are some of the newly created competitions.
In 2015, only 140 Women’s National teams existed and competed regularly. The number has since gone up to 198 thus showing an increase in the reach of the sport.
The creation of the FIFA Women’s Series played in Morocco gave an opportunity to teams like Chad and Libya to for the first time ever enter the FIFA rankings with Chad lifting the inaugural title. The next edition will give teams like Zambia an opportunity to face top quality opposition like the next FIFA Women’s World Cup hosts Brazil in Brazil.
Off the pitch, Infantino has used women’s football to have far reaching influence on societies facing atrocities. Initiatives such as the Afghan Women United demonstrate FIFA’s commitment to protecting access to football, even in the most challenging circumstances, reinforcing the principle that the game must remain open to all.
The Future
FIFA’s major objective is to promote football across all 211 member associations, which includes creating opportunities for girls and women in areas where football is not played, as well as improving and increasing the playing opportunities and quality in areas where women already take to the pitch every single day.
FIFA hopes to enhance commercialization through their ability to develop the game through througg ompetitions. The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 was the first edition with an innovative and independent commercial model, providing a solid basis for enhancing the commercial value of women’s football.
Additionally, there is a plan to create more opportunities to upskill and empower everyone working in women’s football.
