Sarai Bareman hopes the 2019 Women's World Cup will attract 1 billion viewers.GETTY IMAGES
FIFA Chief Women's Football Officer Sarai Bareman said that a record-breaking Women's World Cup next year in France "would be the perfect platform to inspire more young girls" to take up football around the globe, according to Christian Radnedge of REUTERS. FIFA last week announced a new global strategy for the women's game in an "effort to create revenue streams and increase grassroots participation." Bareman said that the aim was to have more people than ever watch the '19 showpiece. Bareman: "Our aim is to have 1 billion viewers for next year's tournament. I'd love to say that was our target for just the final! But no, that would be across the whole tournament. We had 750 million (record) viewers around the world for Canada 2015 and we definitely think that next year has the potential to be even bigger." FIFA's women's football strategy was published online to "little fanfare" this week, stating it would look to double the number of female players to 60 million by '26. Bareman understands why it "could have been seen as a low-key way to announce a flagship policy for FIFA." She said, "I can see why you would think that. But from our perspective we wanted to present it to our member associations first" (REUTERS, 10/12).
