Women's World Cup: Infantino urges women on battle for equality

FIFA president, Gianni Infantino has urged women to “pick the right fights” in order to bring the desired progress to women’s football.

This is as the month-long Women’s World Cup is set to climax on Sunday when European champions – England lock horns with Spain in the final at the Stadium Australia in Sydney.

With two matches still to play, including Saturday’s third place play-off between Sweden and Australia, the Women’s World Cup has been watched by a tournament record 1.85m fans inside stadiums.

Speaking in Sydney, Infantino said women must “push the door” to equality.

“With men, with FIFA, you will find open doors. Just push the doors,” he added.

He added: “And I say to all the women – and you know I have four daughters, so I have a few at home – that you have the power to change. Pick the right battles. Pick the right fights.

“You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do. You do it. Just do it.”

Infantino further revealed that the success of the 2023 Women’s World Cup has silenced critics who questioned expanding the tournament to 32 nations – saying that it would lead to more one-sided games in Australia and New Zealand.

“FIFA was right,” added Infantino.

“We invested one billion US dollars in developing the game all over the world and the women’s game was specifically targeted,” he added.

“We did that in spite of Covid, which impacted us all. Women’s football remained alive even in the most difficult of times. We decided to increase the number of teams at the World Cup to 32.

“I remember when we decided to do [it] that the usual critics, which are less and less, were saying it’s not going to work and the level is too different.

“[They said] there would be 15-0 scores, and it will be bad for women’s football.

“As it happens quite often in the last years, Fifa was right once more. We had eight debutants. We had many countries around the world who thought suddenly they had a chance to participate.”