Press Review - July 2023

  With a partnership portfolio growing from 12 partners (6 partners and 6 host country supporters) for the WWC 2019 to 30 (5 global FIFA Partners, 2 global women’s football partners, 9 global FIFA Women’s World Cup sponsors and 14 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament supporters) for the current edition, FIFA « has delivered a rounded commercial program even though broadcast sales are variously estimated to $200 million short of budget », insideworldfootball.com comments.

  “The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is set to be the biggest stand-alone women’s event in history, and it’s truly incredible to see our fantastic partners and supporters engage with the potential of this unique event. Together, we all share a commitment to developing women’s football at every level, and everyone involved has built extensive plans to spread the word, develop the game and shine a light on the beautiful game”, Romy Gai, FIFA’s chief business officer, said.

  “At the heart of everything we do around the FIFA Women’s World Cup is the development of women’s football around the world and I’m blown away by the depth and breadth of support that our Commercial Affiliates from all over the world have offered to us for this tournament. At every level, they will help us grow the game and give more women and girls the opportunity to play”, Sarai Bareman, FIFA’s chief women’s football officer, added.

  The Dutch firm said that joining forces with FIFA on the occasion of the WWC 2023 further strengthens its presence in sport. It already has a number of existing sponsorship deals, for example, with UEFA. “Football is the world’s #1 passion, and when combined with the excitement and adventure of travel, the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 tournament will create the perfect synergy for memorable experiences that last a lifetime. We’re excited to play a role in inspiring travelers and making it easier for everyone to book their accommodation through our user-friendly app that helps turn bucket list dreams into reality”, Arjan Dijk, CMO and senior vice president at Booking.com, said.

   “Fans from over 150 different countries of residence are bound for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand over the next month to support their team and the tournament, and with Booking.com at their fingertips, many will be able to find great accommodation options throughout their stay”, Sarai Bareman, FIFA chief women’s football officer, added.

  In a press conference held prior to the start of the competition on July 19 in Auckland, Gianni Infantino highlighted that after increasing the prize money for the WWC 2023 to $110 million (compared to $30 million for the previous finals in 2018 in France, and $440 million for the men's World Cup Qatar 2022), FIFA had pledged to devote half of it to players in the 32 national teams involved. But Infantino said that the football governing body could not guarantee the distribution of prize money directly to players taking part of the tournament.

“We have issued recommendations but we are an association of associations. So, whatever payments we do will be through the associations, and then the associations will make the relevant payments to their own players. But we are in touch with all the associations, and there are all different situations in different parts of the world – taxation, residence, and so on, which require special agreements that are agreements for some associations with the players from before, of course. So, I think we have been taking some groundbreaking decisions and it’s far from the end of the story”, Infantino stated.

  This video, entitled “The crazy actions of the French team that we've all forgotten”, shows some highlights of a supposedly male French national team, while in reality the faces of the male players have been superimposed onto the French women’s team players. The main message is to break down gender stereotypes and demonstrate that the women's team is, with the evidence to back it up, capable of offering performances as impressive as those of the men's team. The video ends with the following message: "When Orange supports Les Bleus, Orange supports Les Bleues”. Three weeks after it went online, the video has racked up over 5 million views on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auu0EFbrmjc

  "Orange was open enough to consider a fairly complex idea. […] We had to defend it to the FFF, who also loved it and supported the project. [...] Once the version is published on social networks, you always tend to think that there's some kind of machine that did everything," he smiles. Obviously not. The AI part of the machine played a part, yes, but the human work was considerable. We had almost 8 graphic designers working day and night on it, with almost 500 hours of post-production work. We had to find all the angles that matched the male and female players, classify them and assemble them. Then there was a huge amount of retouching to modify the bodies. The computer doesn't magically transform a young woman with long hair like Cascarino into Mbappé's head. So, we had to rearrange the heads, the ponytails, and rework the bodies to get them closer to male morphologies”, Youri Guerassimov, creation director of Marcel advertisement agency, said to Eurosport.

  Playing in Group F with France, Jamaica, and Panama, the Brazilian players will be able to count on the support of their country's civil servants from afar, as a ministerial statement has allowed the latter to delay the start of their working day by two hours after the end of their women's national team's matches. "On days when the games are held at 7.30 am, the working hours will start at 11 a.m. Brasilia time. On days when the games are held at 8.00 a.m., the working hours will start at 12:00 p.m. Brasilia time”, an ordinance reported by Reuters read.