The challenge would be that the next generations be raised with in mind that both women’s and men’s talent, competence and skills are worth the same.
“Commercial unbundling” FIFA announced as a way to force partners to accept pay equity would be a good start in showing the path to fairness and social justice. It is great that FIFA has engaged in educating / pressuring those it is making business with about women’s equality rights. But this cannot happen right away. It is not overnight a partner will accept a deal they consider the only financial outcome from. I mean that progressively the goal should be for the game to be viewed not from a point of view of gender but from that of the ball, because the ball is the same for both sexes.
That said, the non-economic aspect of the question should be approached and it is the job of the society overall, including women themselves. I hope FIFA will not have a hard time to convince the female gender of its partners. It would have only left to join and invest in the social groups that have been fighting for long for women’s works to be appreciated with the same eyes as men’s work. The challenge would be that the next generations be raised with in mind that both women’s and men’s talent, competence and skills are worth the same.
About the difference in the audience – 2 billion watching 2023 FIFA Women’s Soccer while the men’s world cup in Qatar attracted 5 billion, as ABC’s Samantha Lewis’ article wrote – it is about mental. As FIFA seems understand it, the media know that they are the main channel to drive society to change their view on women, because they reach anywhere, even religion-ruled families. I hope that the tasks will not be as hard with U.S. media as it is with European media.
Perhaps with more transparency and less corruptive activities FIFA could generate a part of what is necessary to satisfy the women’s claims.
As BBC reported it, I agree for FIFA to go with the extreme approach as its president Gianni Infantino threatened to block the 2023 women’s world cup from being broadcasted in UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France provided that the football government is able to bring the event into other countries through its own channels.
This would shift the pressure over to not only the media, but also the governments of those countries and all of others, because the need for equal pay is not just a sport’s issue. FIFA has even more right to keep pressing that the average of viewers watching women’s sport tends to rise.
I am happy that the New York Time’s article said that Gianni Infantino uttered FIFA’s threat of blackout the tournament’s matches in five Europe countries – with the major football leagues – from the World Trade Organization. This means that the fight has been expanding beyond FIFA and its partners’ ground. Infantino better go further, such as to the churches and Vatican. As I said above, the change in people’s mind passes by injecting new values, and the syringe for such an injection lies in social institutions.
The good news is that FIFA just unveiled a “landmark partnership” with Unilever personal care brands, which will run through 2027. Unfortunately, no amount has been revealed in the article to read on fifa.com.