Is women’s soccer in trouble? The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup expanded for the first time since its inception in 1991. A total of 32 teams are participating in the tournament that is taking place in Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, eight nations are making a debut in the competition. It comes as a part of FIFA’s initiative to spread women’s soccer worldwide. However, the recent comments of the FIFA chief have cast doubts over the organization’s commitments to improve women’s soccer.

Gianni Infantino backtracked from the promise he made before the competition started. The statement might attract criticism from players amid the ongoing World Cup.

FIFA chief’s promise and backtracking

“Each individual player at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 can now fully rely on remuneration for their efforts as they progress through the tournament,” were the words of Gianni Infantino before the World Cup started. He committed to distribute money directly to the players from the portion of the prize money. Each player was guaranteed around $30,000 for their participation.

It would have increased to $270,000 with the team’s going deep. As per the commitment, $49 million could have directly gone to the players from record-breaking $110 million prize money, bypassing the federations. Even $30,000 would have changed the lives of many soccer stars, as the average professional women player’s salary is a mere $14,000. The promise excited the players. Who would not have liked to earn that life-changing money?

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But the recent words of the FIFA chief are not encouraging for the women players dreaming of getting enormous prize money. “We are moving, of course, in the right direction. We have been consulting with associations, with players, to try to go in the right path,” Infantino said as per AP News. There is no mechanism by which the governing body can directly transfer the sums to the players. Also, only the federations can handle some residency and tax complications.

“We have issued these recommendations, but we have an association of associations. So whatever payments we do, we will go through the associations, and then the associations will, of course, make the relevant payments to their own players. We are in touch with all the associations,” Infantino added. Despite increasing the prize money to $110 million from $30 million, players might not get massive benefits. The statement comes hours after Infantino left the World Cup in the middle, unlike FIFA Men’s World Cup in 2022.

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It is a disheartening update from the FIFA President amid the ongoing World Cup. It will be interesting to see how the players react to the update. What is your take on the backtracking from FIFA?

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