FIFA targets 16-country women’s circuit,

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 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 and quality 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 his 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.

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 FIFA’s 211 member nations next year to retain his post. As he quietly 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. Like his now disgraced predecessor, Sepp Blatter, who relied on African support for his near two-decade run as president, Infantino has devoted significant time to cultivating the region’s soccer bosses.

FIFA also has taken note of the growth of tournaments such as the U.S.-hosted She Believes Cup, a four-nation tournament that just completed its third year, and the longer-running Algarve Cup in Portugal. FIFA officials believe adding the governing body’s branding and support to the new event would attract greater sponsor and fan interest, as both events have struggled in those areas. While FIFA has made women’s soccer a focus, there remains much work to be done on developing a strategy for the game. Some of FIFA’s financing requirements for national federations require them to operate a women’s program, though how that works as part of an overall strategy is unclear.

Many nations — notably the United States, Canada and a host of countries in western Europe — have made significant investments in the women’s game, but in broad swaths of Africa, Asia and South America, and even in soccer powerhouses such as Italy and Spain, it is often an afterthought.