Will France be deprived of images of the Women’s World Cup in 2023? With less than three months to go before the event, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the scenario remains possible. FIFA has still not made a deal with a French broadcaster. Its president, Gianni Infantino, even raised his voice last month by threatening European countries with being left out of the world tournament if their broadcasting groups did not make sufficient offers. At the French Ministry of Sports, the threat is taken very seriously. The minister, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (pictured above), is even determined to deal with it personally. On Wednesday 10 May, she announced that she had “initiated discussions with FIFA” and at the same time started to contact “each of the French broadcasters“. The aim is to “help bring views closer together in the coming weeks”. At this stage, nothing very concrete, but the Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games is optimistic. Quoted by AFP, she says she has “full confidence in the ability of all those involved in the issue in France to find, in the end, the ways and means to ensure that the competition, and in particular the matches of the French women’s team, are given due prominence“. The issue of the Women’s World Cup and its broadcasting should be discussed at the next Council of European Union Sports Ministers, scheduled for 15 May. As a reminder, in 2004 the French authorities drew up a list of “events of major importance“, which by law must be broadcast to the public free of charge. The list includes 21 international sporting events, most of them men’s events. But it has never been updated, despite the expressed but unfulfilled wish of successive sports ministers
