FIFA chief: Women’s World Cup will be ‘milestone’

BERLIN—FIFA president Sepp Blatter says he expects the women’s World Cup, which starts on Sunday, to be a ‘milestone’ in the women’s game and has promised an increase in prize funds.

While Spain earned $30 million for winning last year’s men’s World Cup in South Africa, from a prize fund of $420 million, just $6 million in total is up for grabs for the women at Germany 2011.

Men’s teams who went out in the group stages in South Africa collected $8 million, while FIFA provided each team with an additional $1 million to help with preparation costs.

In comparison, the winner of the women’s World Cup final in Frankfurt on July 17 will receive just over $1 million and Blatter has said he will look into why the prize money is so low compared to the men’s game.

“I am surprised that there are only six million dollars available,” Blatter admitted at a FIFA press conference at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

“And when I see what the swiss franc is worth compared to the US dollar, maybe we should add something on it.”

Having infamously commented in 2004 that women footballers should wear tighter shirts to promote the game, Blatter was gushing in his praise for the current tournament.

“When I have said in 1995 that the future of football is feminine, I didn’t actually believe it, but now I am convinced that we will see some great football. It will be a milestone tournament,” he said.

“I am also convinced that we will see some excellent refereeing performances.”

Blatter will watch the opening ceremony followed by Germany’s Group A clash with Canada which is expected to be a sell out with more than 70,000 fans expected.

But ex-Germany player Steffi Jones, the head of the organising committee for the tournament, has urged fans in Berlin not to boo the FIFA president after the reputation of the sport’s governing body has been tarnished by recent scandals.

“I hope we are good hosts and there will be no whistles,” Jones said.

Jones said so far 720,000 of the 900,000 tickets for the entire tournament have been sold and only less than 300 tickets are available for Sunday’s first game between France and Nigeria in Sinsheim.