With just over 100 days to the FIFA Women’s World Cup – the largest sports event to ever be played in New Zealand - Suzanne McFadden speaks to Kiwi Sarai Bareman, chief women’s football officer at FIFA, about increased equality and prizemoney, getting more Pasifika and Māori playing football, and what she hopes rubs off from the Rugby World Cup.
The last 100 days leading into a FIFA World Cup must be insanely hectic. Is it even more crazy having it split between two host nations?
I have to say yes, because my only other experience was with a World Cup was in France four years ago, and that was a more compact footprint. You could catch a train from one city to the next. Having it in New Zealand and Australia is complicated, not only the physical footprint, but also the time zone challenges. When you’re in FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich, you can end up doing two full working days in 24 hours if you’re not careful.
The prizemoney for this tournament will increase 300 percent, to $150m - still well shy of the $440m total prizemoney for the men's event. But is this World Cup the closest to equality for women that we’ve seen?
Yes, we’ve equalised all the conditions surrounding the teams to what their male counterparts who participated at Qatar had - and that’s things like class of flights, class of accommodation, the level of training facilities they have access to. So absolutely, we’ve had a huge increase in prizemoney which was recently announced, and we have some further ambitions around that in order to achieve equal pay for our players in next editions (FIFA’s mission is to have equal prizemoney by 2027). But hands down, yes to date, this will be the closest to equality we’ve had.
How important is it to you to have equality?
Hugely. FIFA has a big obligation to lead from the front on things like this. We know very clearly when we do something at FIFA level, it has a flow-on effect to every other organisation within football. To me, that’s really important – but especially to recognise the players and for them to feel recognised. These are women who are day-in, day-out playing football, the stars of the game, and the World Cup won’t happen without them. They’re working hard every day, as their male counterparts are, so we should recognise them by giving them equal treatment.
Having spoken to some of them already, they are so pumped. They are so grateful to be part of it and finally feel they are being recognised for what they bring to the table.
Many female players around the world are battling for equality with their national football organisations, so does this give them hope?
Absolutely. FIFA is a leader in this, so if we draw a line in the sand and say this is what we’re doing, it’s an example for others to follow. Those women who are battling it out at the moment in their own respective countries will take heart from what’s happening at FIFA level. It’s getting better and the data we see on a global level indicates that. We have things like the international transfer matching system where we can track contract levels.
But there are growing pains. And I think it’s really important these discussions are taking place and they’re happening in a public way too. That’s what I love about the Women’s World Cup – it provides this amazing platform for all these topics we’re talking about on a day-to-day basis as women to be suddenly brought to the forefront in the public arena. As women’s football grows, it will happen more and more.
Along with equality and equal prizemoney, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said there would be a dedicated marketing strategy for the women’s game. What will that look like?
There were 61 years between the first men’s World Cup and the first women’s World Cup, so as a product, we’re still relatively young and developing. Because the women’s game is on an exponential growth curve right now, we have the opportunity to think outside the box.
People want to be involved in the women’s game for reasons that are unique and different, and we should absolutely pounce on that and do things differently, tailor-made to our environment and our target market. And that needs dedicated investment. We can’t take our funding from the same pot as the men.
If we can unlock the commercial value of women’s football in FIFA through the Women’s World Cup, that flow-on effect will trickle down. It’s a valuable product – our athletes are the best in the world and we will have 2 billion people watching this event. So we should recognise the commercial value of it and market it in such a way that value is upheld.
We’re not going to take less than what the game is worth – that’s a clear line in the sand FIFA has drawn. It’s no secret some of the [broadcasting] rights haven’t been sold for this World Cup in major markets and that’s simply because they’re not offering enough. That may mean when the World Cup kicks off, there will be some major territories that won’t be able to show it. And so be it, if that’s what it means for us to ensure the value of the women’s game remains high.
With every football World Cup, there are controversies. So far, there's been the global outcry around Visit Saudi becoming a sponsor, and now the possible ban of captains wearing rainbow armbands. How do you deal with that in the lead-up to this tournament?
We have to be measured. The important thing is that FIFA is a global organisation. We have 211 countries who are part of our membership and 32 of them will be competing at this World Cup. We have the eyes of the world on us, and that means when these issues arise we have to be measured and careful in our approach. When you’re dealing with a sporting event of this magnitude and a sport of this level of popularity, it’s important we take a global view of things. We will have more hot topics that come up, trust me.
How do you hope the women’s game in New Zealand will benefit from holding this global platform here?
First of all, we want to see more women and girls playing. We’re trying to get 60 million women and girls playing our sport across the globe by 2026, and we have to start in the two host countries. The thing that’s quite important to me in New Zealand, having grown up there, I’d love to see more of our Pasifika and Maori people playing football. It’s a beautiful sport and I’ve been fortunate to have played it almost my entire life, and we don’t see many brown faces down at the training grounds and in our clubrooms - and I want to see more.
We’ve got to leverage this World Cup to appeal to those communities, and to work with New Zealand Football and the government to ensure that actually there are no barriers to participation for those ethnic communities to come along, join and reap the benefits of being part of this incredible sport.
So I guess that starts with getting them in the stadiums to watch these women play?
Yes, that’s what the Women’s World Cup will do. It’s a big ‘boom’ - a moment in time where you’ll see it on the six o’clock news, in the papers, it’s everywhere. That’s what we want the mums and dads, community leaders and churches to start seeing and say ‘I want my daughter, or my niece, or my youth group to be part of that’. And we have to leverage that.
Are we seeing that reflected in ticket sales for the World Cup?
Ticket sales are tracking really well. We’ve sold around 630,000 tickets now, and we have an attendance target of 1.5 million. The indicators are looking good, particularly in comparison to France four years ago – we weren’t near this level around this time. And France was huge.
There’s a lot of overseas interest. In New Zealand, in particular, there’s going to be a big influx of fans from the United States, with the world champions being based in New Zealand for the group stage. But we still have a long way to go and we don’t want to take our foot off the accelerator.
I’m aware football isn’t the most popular sport in New Zealand, and Kiwis have a habit of buying tickets last-minute to major events – I’m one of them. So I think it’s really important we drive a big campaign around this 100 days to go milestone.
It’s when we release the final phase of tickets and every match will be available – in particular the big opening match of the entire World Cup at Eden Park, when the Football Ferns will play their first game (against Norway on July 20). We want it to be a sell-out because it will mark what the rest of the tournament looks like. New Zealanders have got to get behind it – particularly with the international fans, they’re going to challenge us. And New Zealanders have to step up to the plate, and say we are fans too and we can compete with you.
But Kiwis aren’t known for being passionate fans!
That’s one of the things that’s going to change. When you’re at a World Cup game that’s packed to the rafters, and how all the fans get behind it, it’s so infectious. It’s something we will see – the fandom linked to women’s football, particularly in New Zealand, is going to evolve to another level.
What do you hope is taken from the success of last year’s Rugby World Cup?
The support for the athletes first and foremost - that for me was incredible. I was fortunate to be in New Zealand during the Rugby World Cup, and attended the opening game and the final. I was so struck by the level of support for the individual athletes and the players themselves – they became national heroes. We have some incredible athletes in the Football Ferns – and they’re just not recognised. Some of them are playing overseas in the biggest leagues in the world, and they’re sporting heroes in their own right. To me it’s important that this World Cup can elevate their profiles, so that young girls who want to get into the game know the heroes they can look up to and cheer on in those stadiums. It was so cool to see the poi, the music, the passion – it was incredible.
