ARD and ZDF will broadcast the Women’s World Cup

The wait is over: For a long time it was uncertain whether the Women’s World Cup matches (start: Thursday 20 July) would be shown live on German television. This was due to inconsistencies in the negotiations between FIFA and the television stations. “The offers from broadcasters, especially from the big five European countries, remain very disappointing and simply unacceptable,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement on Instagram a few weeks ago. But now ARD and ZDF have announced that the two parties may agree.

“The European Broadcasting Union has reached an agreement in principle with FIFA to include the markets of Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain in the current contract for the 2023 Women’s World Cup,” the broadcasters said in a press release. “All matches and all goals of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which takes place from July 20 to August 20, 2023, can be watched on ARD and ZDF.”

ZDF Director Dr. “We are very pleased that we can now offer our viewers the opportunity to experience all the matches of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand via public broadcast,” said Norbert Himmler. Ittihad Women are in Group H and meet Morocco in their first match on Monday (July 24th).

Tom Bohreaux thanks DFB President Bernd Neuendorf

ARD’s director of sporting rights, Tom Bohreau, was also relieved about the final negotiations: “I am very happy that we can now offer women’s football the stage that players and fans deserve this year. For his confident support during this year, I would like to expressly thank DFB President Bernd Neuendorf during the negotiations over the past few weeks.

Until a few weeks ago, a negotiation breakthrough would have been unimaginable. FIFA had cited a failed bidding process for broadcast rights. Infantino said at the time: “It is our moral and legal duty not to promote the Women’s World Cup. Therefore, we will be forced not to broadcast the Women’s World Cup in the big five European countries if the shows do not go on fairly.”

According to “Kicker.de”, the last offer from German broadcasters was five million euros, and Italy is said to have reduced the amount by one million euros. At the beginning of the negotiations, FIFA demanded 10 million euros from the broadcasters involved. In turn, ARD and ZDF paid €214 million for the broadcast rights to the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar.

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