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[title]This year, from July 20 to August 20, Australians get the chance to witness a FIFA Women’s World Cup on home soil – an event that has been referred to as the biggest female sporting event to ever take place.
Ahead of this momentous event, we caught up with Sarai Bareman, FIFA’s chief women's football officer, while she was visiting Sydney from Zurich. As a former professional football player herself, Baremen is thrilled about the excitement surrounding the 2023 Women’s World Cup. We spoke to her about the strides that have been made in women’s football, and the progress that still needs to be made.
You've had a really interesting career – can you tell us about your background and how you ended up in this role?
I grew up in New Zealand in a very sporty family, albeit in a different code, with rugby being my first sport. I switched to football in high school, to follow my friends, and I fell in love with it. I played club football in Auckland, before moving to Samoa, where my mother’s from, and representing Samoa in the women's national football team. A bit later, during a trip to Samoa, there was a role advertised for the financial management of the Samoa Football Federation – I’d worked in finance, in banking, for a decade. And I thought, well, I love the sport, and finance is my professional background, so I threw my hat in the ring. I got that job, then ended up becoming the CEO there. I stayed in the country for six years, met my husband there, and that set me on the path towards eventually becoming FIFA’s [first chief women's football officer, in 2016].
You've advocated strongly for more women in leadership positions in football – how has that progressed?
Strides have been taken, really important ones. As part of the reforms at FIFA when I first joined, there were constitutional changes that ensure women are brought into the highest levels of decision making. However, we do still have a really long way to go before seeing women in those positions right across the board as a normality – and for me, that's what we have to aim for.
Do you feel like there's been growing support for women's football across the globe?
Yeah, absolutely. The Women's World Cup is a really good marker of that growth. Because you see this impact once every four years and how big that is. So France, for example, we had 1.2 billion people from around the world watching it – and really global, like more than 200 territories tuning into to watch it. We had more than 1.2 million people in stadiums, and this year in Australia, we're aiming for 1.5 million in stadiums, and two billion viewers across the globe. So we see this incremental growth every four years through the Women's World Cup, which gives us the evidence. For those of us that work in the women's game and live it and breathe it every day, we know there is growing support. We feel it. We see it. It's happening every moment.
What do you think are the key things that have led to this growing interest in the Women’s World Cup?
I think it's many things. Here in Australia, it’s the Matilda's themselves – the success of the team. They're really lifted up as heroes in this country now, and that’s such a good example of what has led to a lot of the growth more globally – it's investment. Because, for the game to grow to the level it has, there needs to be funding. A lot of that has been driven by FIFA – we've invested over $1 billion into the women's game over the past four years. And the other thing wrapping around that funding is supporting and capacity building. You know, we work to deliver World Cups of course, which is fantastic, but away from the World Cups every other day of the year, in between those four years, we're working with the 211 member associations, developing from the grassroots level all the way up to the national team. And that's the work that doesn't get the spotlight as much as a World Cup, but the World Cup gives us the boost that we need.
How do you feel about the World Cup being held here in Australia, and your hometown, New Zealand?
I'm so excited. Being a Kiwi, having grown up there and, also, Australia is an incredibly beautiful country. We've got two really unique, wonderful Indigenous cultures. I'm just so excited for the rest of the world to come and see what we're all about Down Under. And yeah, it's gonna be the biggest event ever. Here in Australia, you’re used to hosting mega events, the people are so welcoming. They're gonna see this incredible spectacle on the pitches in the stadiums, but outside of the stadiums, what the two host countries will offer will also mean it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all these fans who travel here for it.
What would you say to someone who's never watched women's football, to encourage them into a game on TV or buy a ticket to the stadium?
This is the single biggest female sporting event in the world. And it's an iconic moment in time – here in Sydney for example, we had the Olympics 2000. And still now today, when you walk down the streets, you talk to different people wearing their old Sydney 2000 t-shirts – it was a moment in time that people remember and are so proud to be part of. To be able to say they were there or watched that game or were there for that moment. This Women's World Cup is going to be exactly like that. So whether you're a football fan or not, you don't want to miss out on being part of this momentous occasion. And I would say if you do enter into it, and you're not a fan, by the time you come out you will be a fully converted women's football fan.
Anything else you want to add?
t's not actually only about what happens on the pitch. Obviously there's going to be some incredible football, some of the best athletes in the world are coming to these shores. But what's beautiful about a Women's World Cup is the platform that it provides for women in general. And we saw that in France in 2019 – really important topics that are important to a woman – like gender equality, equal pay, all these things – they came to the forefront because of the Women's World Cup. So yeah, it's about the football, but there’s also everything else that it brings – we can really wrap around it and make sure that we leverage that.
To buy tickets, view the match schedule or find out more about the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, click right here.
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