On Friday, Gianni Infantino, the head of FIFA, claimed that despite a tenfold increase in prize money from the 2015 edition, the Women's World Cup had brought in more than Sh82 billion in income and allowed soccer's universal governing organization to break even.

In a characteristically aggressive speech for the Swiss, they claimed that the ninth staging of the FIFA championship had been the "best and greatest and biggest". They defended the choice to increase the prize money and the field from 24 to 32 teams.

"Some voices questioned whether the price would be too high. We'll have to provide subsidies if we don't generate enough revenue. And we believed that if we had to subsidize, we would do so because we had no choice, he said at the FIFA Women's Football Convention.


But the World Cup brought in over 570 million dollars in income, allowing us to break even. On a global scale, we made money without incurring any losses and were second only to the men's World Cup in revenue.

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That one was one of the few analogies to men's football in Infantino's speech. The $152 million prize pool shared by the women in Australia and New Zealand is still far less than the $440 million prize pool for the men's World Cup in Qatar.

"I tell all the women, you can bring about change. Choose your battles wisely. Choose your actions wisely, advised Infantino.

"Let's genuinely go for full equality. Just keep pushing, keep the energy going, keep dreaming. Not only the often-repeated statement about equal pay during the World Cup.

"Equal pay for the World Cup is something we are already moving toward. However, that would not resolve anything because it only affects a small number of the thousands of participants and occurs once every four years.


Additionally, Infantino responded to detractors of the tournament's enlargement and the selection of Australia and New Zealand as hosts.

"There would be 15-0 scores, which would be detrimental to the reputation of women's football. I apologize, but FIFA was correct. FIFA was accurate. FIFA was right once again, as has frequently been the case in recent years.

The World Cup final, which will occur on Sunday in Sydney, is England vs Spain.