Women's World Cup: Fifa threat of European TV blackout criticised by ex-council member
- Published
Infantino on possible blackout of Women's World Cup for Europe
Former Fifa Council member Moya Dodd has criticised Gianni Infantino's threat of a broadcast blackout in Europe for the Women's World Cup.
Infantino says the UK, Italy, France, Spain and Germany will not be able to show the tournament unless TV companies improve their rights offers.
But Dodd claims world football's governing body has historically undervalued the women's game.
"It's a bit rich to scold broadcasters for underpaying," she said.
"Because if you look at the history, Fifa itself never put any value on the women's rights."
The World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, starts on 20 July.
Infantino said European broadcasters had offered Fifa $1m-$10m (£800,000-£8m) for the rights, compared with $100m-$200m for the men's World Cup.
Rights offers for previous women's tournaments were bundled together with other events including the men's World Cup, but Fifa has now separated the bidding process.
In calling for improved offers, Infantino also said all TV revenue for the tournament would be reinvested in women's football.
Former Australia international Dodd, who was a Fifa executive committee member between 2013 and 2017, agreed with the decision to unbundle the rights because it had previously led to the women's tournament being undervalued.
"It [Fifa] sold them as part of a bundle and then attributed all of that value to the men's World Cup," she told the Unofficial Partner podcast., external
"So it has for decades trained those commercial partners and broadcast rights buyers to overvalue men's football and undervalue women's football.
"The analogy that springs to mind is you buy a burger and get fries for free on the side. And suddenly someone says 'you know what, people might just want to buy some fries? Maybe there's a market for that?' And guess what? There is. And you have been undervaluing it by giving it away. So now nobody wants to pay for fries."
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, external Dodd, a former vice-president of the Asian Football Confederation and Football Federation Australia board member, added: "Effectively, the industry was trained to pay big money for the men's World Cup and treat the women's equivalent as worthless. At the same time, the women were told they didn't deserve prize money or equal pay because they didn't bring the revenues.
"It's actually quite outrageous. For Fifa to now say that all women's revenues will go straight into women's football overlooks the fact that the value of the women's rights have until now been used to inflate the value of men's football."
The BBC held the sole broadcast rights in the UK for the 2019 Women's World Cup but shared the rights for the recent men's World Cup in Qatar with ITV.
It has widely been reported, external that the BBC and ITV will share broadcasting rights for this summer's tournament after "positive" discussions with Fifa, although no announcement has been made.
A BBC Sport spokesperson said it did not comment on sports rights negotiations.
Last year the Women's World Cup and European Championship were both added to the 'crown jewels' of British sporting events, which require free-to-air coverage.