The 2026 FIFA World Cup as an Opportunity to Promote Gender Equality

June 10, 2026 Women

Neither any government, international organization, nor public campaign is capable of evoking a simultaneous emotional response in billions of people like football does. If this emotional energy is directed towards promoting gender equality, it can become one of the most powerful drivers of change in the modern world.

Women’s sports is attracting more and more interest

Interest in women’s sports continues to grow rapidly. The 2023 Women’s Football World Cup gathered almost two billion viewers – a record audience for a women’s sporting event. According to forecasts, by 2030 the number of women’s football fans will exceed 800 million people, allowing it to enter the top five most popular sports worldwide. For example, in 2025, residents of the United Kingdom will have watched 397 million hours of women’s competition broadcasts, and its audience reached a record 48 million people. In the USA, viewers during the same period watched 46 billion minutes of women’s sports.

However, despite the high audience interest, women’s sports still receive only about eight percent of prime-time airtime, while providing 13 percent of all sports content views during this period. This indicates a significantly unrealized potential and makes women’s sports one of the most promising areas for further growth and investment.

The gender pay gap

According to FIFA forecasts, in the year of the current football World Cup, this organization’s revenue will amount to about nine billion dollars, and for the entire commercial cycle from 2023 to 2026, this figure may reach 13 billion dollars, which is more than 70 percent higher than the indicators of the previous period. Football has never brought in such revenues before.

Women’s sports also demonstrate rapid growth. It is expected that by 2026, the turnover of women’s sports will reach three billion dollars – 340 percent more than four years ago.

However, the growth in female sports has not yet led to equality in pay. For example, in Forbes’ list of the 50 highest-paid athletes in the world for 2025, there is not a single woman.

Despite the prize fund for the Women’s Football World Cup increasing by 300 percent in 2023 compared to 2019, it still amounts to only one third of the $440 million distributed among the participants of the Men’s World Cup in Qatar.

This is precisely the main paradox of modern football – a sport that today brings record revenues, yet still does not provide women with equal financial opportunities.

Violence against women and girls

Studies show that major sporting events can be accompanied by an increase in violence against women and girls. Thus, according to a study by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety and the Avon Institute, based on data from five major Brazilian cities, on days of local team matches, the number of threats against women increases by 23.7 percent, and the number of physical assaults by 20.8 percent. Similar trends have been recorded in the USA, England, and Scotland.

Women working in the football sphere as players, coaches, referees, journalists, and administrators face discrimination, harassment, and violence. At the same time, measures to protect, file complaints, and independently investigate such cases in many organizations remain inadequate or are entirely absent.

Concern is also caused by the reduction in funding for programs combating violence. According to UN Women, every third organization working in this field was forced to fully or partially cease its activities, which limits access to essential assistance for victims.

Girls continue to go from sports

According to studies, girls under 14 years old quit sports twice as often as boys. Reasons include poverty, gender stereotypes, societal pressure, safety issues, changes related to growing up, as well as the lack of female role models.

Along with sports activities, as studies show, they contribute to longer education, help prevent early pregnancies, and expand employment opportunities in the future. The One Win Leads to Another program, initiated by the “UN Women” structure, has already helped more than 3,200 girls in Brazil and Argentina develop leadership qualities through sports activities.

In the opinion of experts, such initiatives testify to the growing recognition of the role of sports in expanding the rights and opportunities of women and girls. This progress is also reflected in the largest international sports arenas. For example, in 2027 Brazil will host the Women’s Football World Cup. For the first time in history, the tournament will be held in South America. And the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 became the first Games with equal representation of men and women.

Every World Cup becomes an event followed by billions of people. At “UN Women,” they believe that such a global audience gives football a unique opportunity to promote gender equality and equal opportunities for women and girls worldwide.