Moya Dodd, a former member of the FIFA Council, has launched a scathing critique of FIFA President Gianni Infantino's recent warning of a potential Women's World Cup broadcasting blackout in Europe, positing that FIFA bears the blame for the event's lamentable history of being undervalued.
For the first time, FIFA is selling TV rights to the women's tournament separately from the men's. However, Infantino said Europe's "Big 5" nations face a blackout unless broadcasters improve on their "unacceptable" offers.
He added that broadcasters from Britain, Spain, France, Germany and Italy had offered only $1 million-$10 million for the rights, compared to $100 million-$200 million for the men's World Cup.
Dodd, an ex-Australia international, said the broadcast industry had undervalued the women's tournament as FIFA had sold the rights together with the men's.
"Now that FIFA has decided to sell the rights separately, it's no surprise that the buyers don't want to pay the same big numbers twice," Dodd told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Effectively, the industry was trained to pay big money for the men's World Cup and treat the women's equivalent as worthless. At the same time, the women were told they didn't deserve prize money or equal pay because they didn't bring the revenues.
"It's quite outrageous. For FIFA to now say that all women's revenues will go straight into women's football overlooks the fact that the value of women's rights have until now been used to inflate the value of men's football."
Dodd said that FIFA should review its bundled deals instead of threatening broadcasters and attribute a fair proportion to the women's game.
"If the Women's World Cup gets 50-60% of the viewers of the men's, as FIFA says, that should amount to a sum in the billions," she added.
FIFA did not comment on Dodd's remarks, but Infantino said, "100% of any rights fees paid would go straight into women's football, in our (FIFA's) move to promote actions towards equal conditions and pay".
In March, FIFA announced that a total package of $152 million would be on offer at this year's tournament – three times more than at the 2019 edition in France and over 10 times more than the amount offered at the 2015 tournament in Canada.
The Women's World Cup will be held from July 20-Aug. 20 in Australia and New Zealand.
