More than 2 billion people are expected to have tuned in. About 2 million attended matches in person. Both records. The FIFA Women’s World Cup generated more than $570 million to break even.
So how much more convincing does FIFA President Gianni Infantino need that women deserve pay parity? And, more importantly, how much more convincing do women have to do? In comments Friday, two days before the final, that instantly drew ire from players and on social media, Infantino said women "have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do” to achieve pay equality. It was the trite, old message that it’s still up to women to prove themselves.
This was a golden opportunity to leverage the undeniable success of the tournament that was held in Australia and New Zealand to telegraph a message of acceptance that women are world-class competitors in sports traditionally dominated by men. Instead, once again, the ball was kicked (no pun intended) into the women’s end. More of women "have the power to change.” "Just keep pushing, keep the momentum going, keep dreaming,” Infantino said. Nothing about it’s time for men’s attitudes to change. Because if there ever was a time to do that, this was it.