The 2023 Women's World Cup could be given a prize pot of $100 million as FIFA enters the final year of preparations before the tournament kicks off next July.
At an event on Wednesday in Sydney marking "One Year To Go", FIFA Secretary-General Fatma Samoura told media that "new trends in terms of revenues" has led FIFA to revise the amount of money it could award competing teams, with the previous figure for the 2023 tournament sitting at roughly $US 60 million ($85m million).
The Women's World Cup prize pot has steadily increased over the past two editions, growing from around $US15 million in 2015 to $US30 million in 2019.
After the 2019 tournament, FIFA President Gianni Infantino promised to "at least double" the prize pot once more for the 2023 edition.
"In terms of figures, if we compare the prize money of the FIFA World Cup 2015 in Canada and the eighth edition in France [...] the prize money [went] from $US15 million to [more than $US30 million]," Samoura said.
"Four years later, we are talking about doubling the prize money that the team received back in 2019 to $100 million [$US69 million].
"Yes, we are still a bit far from men's World Cup prize money, but we should also consider [that] the men's World Cup started almost 100 years ago, in 1930. The Women's World Cup started 61 years later, in 1991.
"We are at the ninth edition and, already, when we see the level of investment — $1 billion put by FIFA over the last cycle — it's just, for me, a matter of time before we reached this inflection-point."
Samoura explained that the previous number could be further boosted due to the rapidly-changing financial landscape of women's football, with the 2023 Women's World Cup set to be the first women's tournament "unbundled" from it's male counterpart in terms of media and sponsorship rights.
"Today, the men's World Cup is the one that is funding all the FIFA competitions, including the Women's World Cup. But we have seen new trends in terms of revenues," she said.
"It's the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup that companies are coming to us — like Visa — and telling us, 'We just want to put money for the women's game, because we know that there is an untapped new potential in the women's game.'
"Football is played and watched by four billion people. Half of them are women. So, two billion people. Women decide also at the household level where the money should go for the boys and for the girls, so they represent a huge purchasing power.
"If I was an investor today, I [would] certainly not think twice about investing in women's football, because the future is in women's football."
FIFA will also commit further funding to Australia and New Zealand for football infrastructure as part of their symbolic "Unity Pitch" initiative, where a pop-up football court will travel around both host nations over the next 12 months to host events and encourage state and federal governments to commit more funding to much-needed facilities, such as upgraded training sites, community fields and female-friendly change rooms.
"We've seen, after each World Cup, that the number of people who register in the host country — but [also] in the countries that are part of the [tournament] — is immediately multiplied by three," Samoura said.
"Today is an opportunity for me to make a plea to the government of Australia, in particular, because right after the last whistle, you will see a huge increase in the number of young girls who would like to go to register to play football.
"It's time that we start, from now on, making sure they have the facilities available that allows them also to become, one day, football stars."
