Fifa may talk tough but it has paved the way by undervaluing women’s football

Prepare the spandex: women’s football superman Gianni “I have four daughters” Infantino is here to save the day.

The president of Fifa has threatened a broadcasting blackout of the Women’s World Cup in the “big five” European countries of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, blaming bids for the broadcast rights for the tournament that he said were a “slap in the face” to the players and “all women worldwide”.

Speaking at a World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva, Infantino repeated his call from October for broadcasters to up their bids, saying: “To be very clear, it is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the Fifa Women’s World Cup. Broadcasters should put their action behind their words, because they rightfully criticise organisations for not paying women and men equally … otherwise we’ll simply not sell these rights at these undervalued prices to them.”

What a man. And surely now a shoo-in for the rather bizarre Male Football Ally of the Year award at next year’s Women’s Football Awards, with this year’s inaugural shortlists sadly already announced.

Why the sarcasm and frustration at Infantino and Fifa for what seems like a perfectly sensible thing to say? Because there is a heavy dose of irony in the architects of the chronic underfunding of women’s football, and a real lack of ideological as well as financial investment in it, speaking up against the undervaluing of the women’s game.

It is almost four years since chants of “equal pay” rang round Lyon’s Groupama Stadium after the US lifted a fourth Women’s World Cup title. Far from the start of a campaign, that was the crescendo of it. Finally, in March of this year, Infantino announced that Fifa would make the prize fund for the women’s