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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Suzanne Wrack

There are no winners in the Women’s World Cup broadcast fiasco, only losers

The Sydney Opera House illuminates its support of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on 20 July.
The Sydney Opera House illuminates its support of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on 20 July. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? If a World Cup kicks off on the other side of the world but no one can watch it, does it really happen?

We are 43 days out from the Women’s World Cup starting in Australia and New Zealand but, with Fifa threatening a blackout because of low offers for the broadcast rights from the biggest European footballing countries, you wouldn’t know it. There are no adverts, no references to coverage and there is no buildup. Instead, prospective viewers and existing fans in those countries have been left in limbo.

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