Infantino defends FIFA’s decision to expand Women’s World Cup – sport
SYDNEY: FIFA president Gianni Infantino hit back on Friday at critics of the decision to expand the Women’s World Cup to 32 teams, saying: “I’m sorry, but FIFA was right.”
England and Spain will play the final in Sydney on Sunday, concluding a month-long tournament that will feature 32 teams for the first time, up from 24 in 2019.
There were apprehensions that the high number of teams would mean some weak sides and hence some unbalanced scorelines.
But the World Cup saw several high-ranking teams exit early, and Jamaica, Morocco and South Africa all reached the knockout stage for the first time.
Speaking at the FIFA conference in Sydney on women’s football, Infantino called this Women’s World Cup “the biggest and the best ever”.
“They were saying: it won’t work, the level is too different, you will have a 15-0 score, it will be bad for women’s football and its image,” she said of FIFA’s move to expand the tournament to 32 teams. Said about
“But I’m sorry, FIFA was right, FIFA was right.
World Cup 2026 teams will be in ‘clusters’: Infantino
“We had a number of countries around the world who thought now was their chance to participate.
“Now everyone believes there is a chance to shine on the global stage.”
Infantino reiterated that soccer’s governing body has invested $1 billion in the women’s game and that “full parity has been achieved” with men’s soccer.
“The revenue generated from this World Cup is more than $570 million and hence we are in loss,” he said.
“We didn’t lose any money and we generated the second most revenue of any sport globally – apart from the men’s World Cup.”
He said: “It shows that our strategy was not too bad, but of course we still have a lot to do.
“But we are on the right track.”
