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"I think that this World Cup is going to be the most watched, it's going to be the most attended, it's going to bring in the most revenue that we've ever seen," says Alex Morgan in a press conference, just under a month away from this summer's edition. "I think that this World Cup is just going to be another testament to the growth of women's soccer, and I believe Australia and New Zealand are going to put on a great show," she explains after she was selected to represent her country for the fourth time on the World's biggest stage.
With FIFA aiming to sell 1.5 million tickets to the event and an expected television audience of two billion people over the course of the month, it's no surprise that many are touting it to be the biggest and most-watched tournament in the history of women's football.
The scale of this year's World Cup is off the charts compared to what legendary US striker Alex Morgan encountered when she was first selected to represent her country back in 2011 in Germany. At the time, the iconic striker was the youngest player on the team at 21-years-old and was only just embarking on a career that would see her become one of the most recognizable and influential female soccer players in history.
Morgan's impact on the game, both in growing the women's sport's popularity as well as pushing for the improved rights of female footballers, cannot be underestimated. "Our team is in a way different space than we were going into the 2019 World Cup, having achieved equal pay and equal prize money, equal working conditions, but it's not just us. We're fighting it, there's still a lot of teams fighting for it," she reflects.
After a long and arduous struggle for equality with US Men's soccer, a major breakthrough was achieved in 2022 when it was agreed that prize money earned via international competitions such as the World Cup would be split evenly between the men's and women's American soccer teams. In other words, the prize money the USMNT was awarded for reaching round 16 of the Qatar World Cup- $13 million to be precise-, will be pooled with the money generated by USWNT this summer in Australia and New Zealand and then distributed evenly between the two teams.
What's more, FIFA also announced recently that they were increasing the prize money for this summer's edition of the tournament, something players have been campaigning for some time now. Those players that participate in the group stages will earn $30,000 each- in other words, each player from the 32 teams is guaranteed $30,000 just for participating. The prize money then goes up depending on how far you go, reaching an impressive sum of $270,000 for those players who make the final.
"I think you're starting to see FIFA respect that and value women's soccer way more than we've seen before. I think that puts a lot of pressure on sponsors, on federations, on everybody in the soccer world to recognize and embrace that," added Morgan.
You're starting to see FIFA respect that and value women's soccer way more than we've seen before
Still work to be done
Having said that, Morgan explains that there is still plenty of work to do, especially when it comes to other nations. Morgan referred to several issues that other women's international teams continue to encounter, but specifically highlighted Spain's recent case.
"If you look at Spain, there's some players who should absolutely be in this World Cup that are not going due to the inequalities of their team and for standing up for themselves and the future generations of their sport," said Morgan.
Back in September 2022, 15 players, or 'Las 15' as they've become known, refused to play for the national team after claiming that they were very unhappy with their manager, Jorge Vilda. His methods and 'inappropriate' coaching style were cited as the motives, but many have questioned if something more serious may have happened given the fact that so many players mobilized against him. Now, only three of those 15 have made the definitive World Cup list.
Morgan concluded that the hard work must continue, but also recognized that she is pleased with the progress that has been made so far. "There's so many leagues around the world that are paying players more, that are playing more often throughout the season and that are treating players in a professional way... that's we've been fighting for a long time."