FIFA Reportedly Falls $100 Million Short of Women’s World Cup Rights Goal

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FIFA reportedly fell roughly $100 million short of its goal for Women’s World Cup broadcast rights fees ahead of the tournament’s kickoff in New Zealand on July 20.

The organization aimed to sign deals to value the WWC’s global broadcasting rights at $300 million, but it will instead settle for closer to $200 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. FIFA is on track to bring in about $50 million in new broadcast rights sales since last year’s men’s World Cup—about a third of the $150 million new fees it hoped to secure. 

This year’s Women’s World Cup is the first in which FIFA separately sold broadcast rights to the tournament, a break from the past in which the rights were essentially given for free to broadcasters who bought rights to the men’s tournament.

After the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France drew 1.1 billion viewers globally, FIFA pushed to sell broadcast rights for the women’s tournament and expanded the field to 32 teams. However, European broadcasters’ initial bids to broadcast this summer’s WWC were so small—some 1% of their payments to stream the men’s World Cup—that FIFA president Gianni Infantino threatened to blackout the games in England, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

FIFA reached WWC agreements with broadcasters in Europe’s “Big Five” countries last month to avoid the blackout, but WSJ reports that the combined deals were signed for roughly half of the $65 million that FIFA hoped to fetch.

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