Channel 7

• The Women’s World Cup has also delivered an estimated A$7.6 billion boost to the Australian economy.
• But, as anyone in and around women’s football knows, the Women’s World Cup needs to be more than a four-week football festival.
• It needs to move the dial on the treatment of, and investment in, women’s sport, including with the following big-ticket items.

1. Celebrate and extend the cultural shift

• Encouraging and continuing this cultural shift will be equally, if not more, game-changing.
• We must cement such a shift with good policy and investment to promote further inclusion.

2. Acknowledge no single event can fix everything

• No single sport event can neatly address all gender equality issues (we’ve heard such optimism and hype around women’s sport and its gender-equality-advancing ability before).
• So while it’s important to celebrate the wins, it’s equally important to recognise the tournament isn’t the endgame but an important next step.

3. Use the data to align value with investment

• Until recently, the absence of investment in women’s football and the failure to broadcast matches meant the resulting data have only ever shown us what women’s football is not.
• That lack of data is also why broadcasters were able to lowball FIFA when it was trying to sell the 2023 Women’s World Cup broadcast rights.

4. Invest in gender-specific research and gear

• Oft-cited research confirms women are up to eight times more likely to suffer ACL injuries than men.
• But there remains little women-specific research into ACL injury causes, much less prevention.
• This is symptomatic of wider issues around research overlooking women.
• If ever there were something that summed up how women’s football simultaneously excels while being thwarted, this is it.

5. Appoint women to senior positions, but avoid the 'glass cliff’

• This tournament needs to open the door for women to be making decisions for women’s sport.
• We need to steer clear of the “glass cliff” phenomenon – where women are awarded senior positions only during tumult and the men who usually hold those roles are abandoning ship.

6. Pay them properly

• But there remains one key missing element for them, as it is for all women’s sports: pay and prize money commensurate with their contributions and talent.
• The latter won the netball World Cup last week but received no pay and no bonuses for their efforts.
• However, FIFA Women’s World Cup prize money, still a fraction of the men’s prize money, remains the elephant in the room.

7. ‘Correct the internet’

• This has happened across many domains, including women’s football.
• For example, often the historical record has seen football records such as the world’s leading international goalscorer misattributed to men.