The $152 million prize pool for the 2018 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand has been confirmed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
During Making Trade Score for Women, a series of panel discussions held at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Infantino made the confirmation while speaking alongside Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
The largest women’s football tournament, which will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand and begin on 20th July, will also feature a significant increase in prize money from what it was four years ago in 2019. FIFA has also announced that it will increase the prize money pool.
“As a father of four beautiful daughters, I know very well how much attention we need to give women in our lives,” Infantino said at FIFA Congress.
“Our ambition will be, of course, to be able to have equality in payments for the ’26 Men’s and ’27 Women’s World Cups. FIFA is stepping up with actions, not just with words… but unfortunately this is not the case of everyone across the industry. Broadcasters and sponsors, dear friends, have to do more in this respect.”
The $152 million budget for the first 32-team competition is a significant increase over the $30 million for the 24-team edition in 2019 and ten times what it was in 2015, but it is still significantly less than the $440 million in total prize money given out at the 32-team men’s World Cup in Qatar last year.
The 2019 Women’s World Cup victors won $4 million, while each competing nation received $750,000.
In a statement posted to the website of the world’s governing body of football, the FIFA president said that, even before he was elected, FIFA had already set an example by increasing the overall financial package for the Women’s World Cup 2023 to $152 million, which is triple the amount paid in 2019 and ten times more than in 2015.
He did, however, note that FIFA still had to sell several large markets the media rights to the competition since the proposals were cheap.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala backed the FIFA President’s request saying, “I hope the broadcasters are listening to what the FIFA president is saying about bidding higher for the Women’s World Cup as this is a real opportunity to support women’s football, and I hope they’ll take you up on your offer.”
