FIFA President Infantino threatens blackout at Women’s World Cup

As of 6:13 p.m| Reading time: 3 minutes

JThe DFB presented a lot of success figures on the boom in women’s football on its campus in Frankfurt on Wednesday – but no solution for the currently most urgent problem. In the poker game for the TV rights for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the summer, association president Bernd Neuendorf can only act as an intermediary behind the scenes. Nevertheless, the top official is putting pressure on. “I think everyone has to pull themselves together. We have a political responsibility: to women’s football and to society,” said Neuendorf.

The fact that the World Cup games of the German runners-up European champions cannot be seen on television in this country – that’s something you don’t want to imagine at the DFB and also at the clubs. Neuendorf called on all those involved to work together in a solution-oriented manner. “It’s no use doing fingerpointing now,” said the 61-year-old. A blackout on German television during the World Cup tournament from July 20th to August 20th would be “a loss of image for everyone involved,” he warned and appealed to those involved, “not to refuse it, but to ask what it is Consequence if you don’t get together?”

According to a “Kicker” report, the public TV stations offered five million euros for the broadcasting rights of the tournament with 32 teams for the first time. The world football association Fifa demands twice as much. According to dpa information, the sums are slightly higher. ARD and ZDF had paid 214 million euros for the rights to the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar. Neuendorf did not want to comment on specific figures: “We do not really have reliable figures.”

Fifa President Infantino does not want to “sell the World Cup below value”

Fifa President Gianni Infantino warned that the games could not be shown on TV in Germany either. It is a “moral obligation” not to undersell the women’s World Cup. ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky recently said in an interview with the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” in mid-April that ARD and ZDF had “placed a market-oriented offer within the framework of this tender”.

When asked if he spoke to Infantino about the issue, Neuendorf, who is a member of the Fifa Council, replied: “You can assume that I am aware of my responsibility. That I will do everything in my power to find a solution.”

Recently, politics had also gotten involved in the debate. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) pushed for a quick agreement. With 17.952 million viewers, the live broadcast of the European Championship final between Germany and England at Wembley Stadium (1-2) was the most-watched television program of the past year.

Time difference speaks against good ratings

However, the World Cup games from Australia and New Zealand do not promise any quota records, as they do not fall in German prime time due to the time difference. The German team headed by national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg will play their preliminary round matches against Morocco, Colombia and South Korea in the early morning.

In other European countries, the TV question is also unresolved a few weeks before the World Cup. Ironically, Norway’s association president Lise Klaveness, who is considered to be very critical of Infantino, recently took the television stations to task and said about the Fifa boss: “It is positive in itself that he is pursuing a policy that is about the income of the women and not just about money from Saudi Arabia. That’s exactly what we have to support in my opinion.” It’s good that he’s putting some pressure on. Norway will play the opening game against New Zealand on July 20th.