When Gianni Infantino talks, you listen. By which we mean: when Fifa‘s president takes to any stage, as if determined to make fame-hungry moths flying towards flames a spectator sport, an alarm sounds and you wait for the line that will leave you agog and then curse yourself for even being surprised at all.
There were valid points within Infantino’s impromptu speech, delivered at Fifa Women’s Football Convention in the international convention centre on Friday morning Sydney time. His calling out of media companies and the unequal coverage between men’s and women’s World Cups is perfectly accurate. Italy was his headline example, a 39-strong press corps in Qatar (when the country hadn’t qualified) and no registered media footprint here. That’s not good enough.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Infantino has treated them differently too. Unlike the men’s tournament, when he based himself in Qatar for 12 months until the tournament and attended games throughout, he left New Zealand for Tahiti five days after the start of the Women’s World Cup group stage. Infantino didn’t visit Australia between the World Cup being awarded to them in 2020 and its commencement in July 2023. Must do better, Gianni?
You know the gist of what Infantino said already without watching the video. He urged for women that they have the “power to change” (they really don’t, or s__t would have forcefully gone down by now). He said that he had “women at home” and thank god he meant his wife and daughters. He stressed that Fifa has “open doors” to any woman. He told them to “pick the right fights”, which sounds vaguely threatening. Presumably having the mention of LGBT+ communities on the armbands was one of the wrong fights?
Infantino also used the most ingloriously patronising line possible: “You have the power to convince us men what we have to do and what we don’t have to do”. Yes, ladies. Tell us what to do. We’re not going to make you the actual decision-makers, obviously – we’re not mad. But if you plead to us blokes in suits, we will consider action. And you can’t say fairer than that.
Unsurprisingly, equality is Infantino’s buzzword. It all gets a bit David Brent single Equality Street – you can imagine him looking down the camera and saying slowly: do unto others and life is sweet, books have no covers just look right in.
Handily, here was a position in which Fifa really could make a difference. There was a campaign for equal pay at this World Cup and, at the latest estimate, Fifa had reserves of around $4bn (£3.1bn). So presumably that all happened, right? Oh.
“Collective bargaining has allowed us to ensure we now get the same conditions as the Socceroos, with one exception,” Australia midfielder Tameka Yallop says in a video released before the tournament.
“Fifa will still only offer women one quarter as much prize money as men for the same achievement.”
That seems a little awkward for Infantino. Here he is, telling us that female footballers need to tell him and his organisation what is important to them. Those footballers told him what was important to them, that having the prize pool for the women’s World Cup at a quarter of the size of the men’s World Cup is unacceptable. And they say that nothing has changed despite their campaigning.
As ever, Infantino has the answer: “Not just equal pay in the World Cup, which is a slogan that comes up every now and then. Equal pay in the World Cup, we are going in that direction already. But that would not solve anything. It might be a symbol but it would not solve anything.”
Before you even get into the specifics of symbology vs concrete action (and this surely qualifies as the latter, given the difference it would make to teams around the world), and before you even discuss Infantino’s deliberate use of the word “solution”, as if doing something to progress further towards equality isn’t worth doing if it isn’t the perfect, solve-all solution, can we have a minute for Fifa’s president referring to the equal pay of men and women as a “slogan”. I can think of another slogan for this, but the lawyers won’t let me print it.
Still, if there’s one thing that Infantino is brilliant at, it is demanding systemic change in the sport while simultaneously playing down the importance of what he and his organisation can do. They are only football’s world governing body, after all, a non-for-profit with vast cash reserves and the responsibility for distributing it for the good and the growth of the game.
You know what to do now, women: just ask and it will be done. Probably. Maybe. Possibly. Unless it’s that thing that you really want.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/qrUv0TB
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