Infantino Believes Women's World Cup Will Convince the Doubters

 

FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed that women's football has witnessed remarkable growth over the past decade and firmly believes that the Women's World Cup will win over any skeptics who question the value of the women's game.

The governing body of the sport anticipates that 2 billion viewers will tune in for the 64-game tournament, which is jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and is scheduled to kick off in Auckland on Thursday.

"People who still hold doubts about the quality or entertainment value of women's football, considering it to be a mere imitation of men's football, will be pleasantly surprised when they watch a game for the first time. They will realize that it's an outstanding sport," stated Infantino.

He also emphasized that the level of women's football has seen significant improvement over the past decade, and the best players from around the world are participating in this tournament.

Infantino expressed that if there's one sport where the women's game can genuinely compete with the men's, it is football. Considering that women make up around 50% of the global population, it seems illogical that there wouldn't be any sport where they could excel and rival some of the men's sports.

The opening ceremony and the first match between New Zealand and Norway will take place in Auckland, which is smaller than most of the other host cities in Australia.

Although overall ticket sales exceeded 1 million more than a month ago, there are concerns about the slow pace of sales in New Zealand. In response, FIFA announced that it would be giving away 20,000 free tickets in New Zealand to encourage attendance.

Infantino urged the people of New Zealand to support the event, emphasizing that it's never too late to do the right thing.

According to FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, a total of 1.375 million tickets have been sold for the tournament so far.

The ninth edition of the Women's World Cup will run from July 20 to August 20.