FIFA plans to launch women’s league

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA — FIFA President Gianni Infantino will ask members of his executive council to approve plans for a new global women’s league this week.

The proposed competition would feature 16 of the world’s top women’s national teams and begin play in 2020. FIFA also plans to add four regional leagues to encourage the development of women’s soccer globally and to allow the best performers from those regions a chance to win promotion to the top division in a system of promotion and relegation.

The move is part of an effort to increase the visibility, quality and appeal of women’s soccer and to boost Infantino’s standing before his bid for re-election next year. Investing in the women’s game was a plank in Infantino’s campaign platform in 2015.

Under the format, the 16 teams will be divided into four groups and play in mini-tournaments before the winners face off in semifinals and a final to determine a champion. The rationale behind the idea is to grow interest in the women’s game, which until now has been largely financed by the billions of dollars FIFA makes from selling the quadrennial men’s World Cup tournament and currently has only two marquee global tournaments every four years: the Women’s World Cup and the Olympics.

Also, with few opportunities for women around the world to play professionally, the overwhelming majority of countries have struggled to field teams that can legitimately compete with the five or so best teams in the world.

The new event also would give countries that have not had a chance to host a FIFA-branded event the opportunity to hold one, something that plays well for Infantino as he prepares to run for a second term.

Infantino needs the support of the majority of the organization’s 211 member nations next year to retain his post, and as he campaigns he has been busy creating or expanding events to woo nations considered to be at soccer’s furthest outposts. In February, for instance, FIFA arranged a summit meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania. Infantino discussed tentative plans for the women’s competition there, without providing details. Those may emerge from this week’s FIFA meetings in Colombia.

“We are also thinking of creating a world women’s football league so that all federations can participate, because we should not lose sight of the fact that 50 per cent of the world’s population is female,” Infantino said at the meeting in Mauritania, according to news reports.

But the new women’s tournaments also are in line with promises the 47-year-old Infantino made when he won the FIFA presidency in 2016.