Rhiannon Martin, FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 supervisor, confirmed that the main reason behind the federation’s decision to increase the number of teams participating in the upcoming Women’s World Cup is due to the tremendous success that occurred in the France 2019 edition.
“The decision to increase the number of participating teams was taken in the wake of the huge success of the Women’s World Cup in France 2019,” Martin said, today, Wednesday, just 50 days before the start of the new edition of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. .
“Increasing the number of teams was seen as a way to broaden the tournament’s appeal further, achieving our president’s goal of making football truly global by providing more opportunities for more teams. An increase of 8 teams compared to what happened in France 2019, an opportunity to compete and will have a positive impact on the development of women’s football in the regions from which the additional teams qualified.
The excitement of the Qatar World Cup
Martin explained, “Some indicate that an increase in the number of teams participating in the Women’s World Cup will cause a weakening of the level of the group stage, but nevertheless, no one should rule out the excitement, commitment and dedication of all the 32 participating teams. We saw in the Men’s World Cup in Qatar 2022 that there are some victories.” The sudden surprise of the so-called weaker teams, the scenario is likely to be repeated in Australia and New Zealand as well.
“The joint organization of the Women’s World Cup is very exciting,” Martin said. “I was working at FIFA at the time of the joint organization of the men’s World Cup for the first time in 2002 in South Korea and Japan. Now, as at that time, we got a unique opportunity to work with two different host countries, to get the best Possible stadiums and conditions for the participating teams.
And she continued, “The final touches are being made on the stadiums and training sites to ensure that all the requirements of the participating teams are met. The type of work varies from one stadium to another, but it includes changing rooms, upgrading technical services, renovations for guest areas and companies, and using the latest technologies to install and manage the stadium.” Infrastructure for host cities in Australia and New Zealand, such as hotels and public transport, will be in place.”
Interested federations signed a bidding agreement, in which four candidacy files compete for hosting @FIFAWWCBids must be submitted by December 8, 2023, and the host country (or countries) will be chosen by the FIFA Congress by universal ballot on May 17, 2024.
Details ✍👈 https://t.co/UUAernPfEA pic.twitter.com/Esw0mgBOAW
– FIFA.com – Arabic (@fifacom_ar) May 22, 2023
And the FIFA official revealed, “According to the organization’s regulations, the deadline for the teams participating in the Women’s World Cup to arrive in Australia and New Zealand is 5 days before the first match. However, given the distance that most teams will have to travel, and they are keen to acclimate as quickly as possible, quite a few teams will hold preparation camps in the host countries next July.”
She explained, “157 countries have so far owned the television broadcasting rights to the tournament, and we hope that they will all be increased soon. So the biggest women’s sporting event in the world can be watched everywhere.”
“We see the popularity of the tournament through the number of sponsors that have been involved. Partnerships like this directly impact and support the growth and development of women’s football, which is our clear objective. As you know, the FIFA President has made it clear that all proceeds from the tournament will go to women’s football.”
Commenting on the discrepancy between marketing, sponsorship and television rights between men’s and women’s competitions, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 official said, “Back in 2021, FIFA had a vision to delink marketing and sponsorship for men and women with a new commercial partnership structure. The structure for women’s football is moving forward to make Football is fairer and more accessible to women and girls. It makes perfect sense that we would have a different deal to value it equally.”
The Women’s World Cup will be held in New Zealand and Australia from July 20 to August 20.
