Wif he is old enough, he can still remember these television times, mainly in black and white – when it had not yet been decided the day before whether the European Cup football match would be shown live on television or not.
Sometimes these negotiations dragged on until just before the game started, and sometimes there was still nothing to see for a short time because the television stations complained about advertising boards. Nobody was that excited about the women’s football World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (July 20 to August 20). But the month-long haggling over broadcast rights seemed just as bizarre.
The International Football Association, in the form of its President Gianni Infantino, has played a major role in this. Because the offer from the German public broadcasters was not enough for him, he immediately publicly brandished the moral club of gender equality and complained that women’s football was simply not valued enough. However, trusting negotiations are becoming so difficult, and in addition to ARD and ZDF, broadcasters from Italy, Spain, France and England also had to listen to similar allegations from the Swiss.
Connections with critical reporting of the men’s World Cup in Qatar, which some saw, are certainly fictitious. If necessary, Infantino had threatened in this power struggle, the screen would remain black and the World Cup games in these countries would only be visible on the association’s platform. It was quite reminiscent of the old days, except that streaming wasn’t possible back then.
There are good reasons why not everyone wanted to relieve the FIFA President of his role as a major promoter of women’s football and women’s rights in general. The absurd FIFA plan to make the Saudi tourism authority the sponsor of the Women’s World Cup was only abandoned after massive protests. The World Cup will now be shown on public broadcasters after all, after negotiations were finally taken over by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). With the agreement reached, it is said, both sides could save face.
This shows that not much has changed since then. Ultimately, it is always a matter of haggling over the price. Only advertising boards don’t bother anyone anymore.