2023 WWC: Fifa president Gianni Infantino on battle for equality

Fifa president Gianni Infantino says women who “pick the right fights” can “convince us men what we have to do” to bring progress in women’s football.

The month-long Women’s World Cup concludes on Sunday when England face Spain in the final at Stadium Australia in Sydney (11:00 BST kick-off).

Speaking in Sydney, Infantino said women must “push the door” to equality.

“With men, with Fifa, you will find open doors. Just push the doors,” he added.

With two matches still to play, including Saturday’s third-place play-off between Sweden and Australia (09:00 BST), the Women’s World Cup has been watched by a tournament record 1.85m fans inside stadiums.

“This World Cup generated over $570m (£447m) in revenues, and so we broke even,” said Infantino.

“We didn’t lose any money and we generated the second highest income of any sport, besides of course the men’s World Cup, at a global stage.”

There remains a huge discrepancy in prize money between the men’s and women’s tournaments, with the record $110m (£86.1m) for this World Cup some way short of the $440m (£346m) on offer to teams at last year’s men’s finals in Qatar, where 3.4m fans were in attendance.

“Equal pay in the World Cup? We are going in that direction already,” said Infantino.

“But that would not solve anything. It might be a symbol but it would not solve anything, because it’s one month every four years and it’s a few players out of the thousands and thousands of players.

“We need to keep the momentum.”

He added: “And I say to all the women – and you know I have four daughters, so I have a few at home – that you have the power to change. Pick the right battles. Pick the right fights.

“You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do. You do it. Just do it.”

‘Fifa was right’

Infantino said the success of the Women’s World Cup had silenced critics who questioned expanding the tournament to 32 nations.

Concerns were raised that increasing the number of teams from 24 would lead to more one-sided games in Australia and New Zealand.

However, Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica and Morocco – nations ranked no higher than 40th in the world – advanced past the group stage.

“Fifa was right,” added Infantino.

“We invested one billion US dollars in developing the game all over the world and the women’s game was specifically targeted,” he added.

“We did that in spite of Covid, which impacted us all. Women’s football remained alive even in the most difficult of times. We decided to increase the number of teams at the World Cup to 32.

“I remember when we decided to do [it] that the usual critics, which are less and less, were saying it’s not going to work and the level is too different.

“[They said] there would be 15-0 scores, and it will be bad for women’s football.

“As it happens quite often in the last years, Fifa was right once more. We had eight debutants. We had many countries around the world who thought suddenly they had a chance to participate.”