Ministers call for 'swift' deal on Women's World Cup TV rights

Five European sports ministers have called for "all stakeholders to swiftly find an arrangement" for TV broadcast of the Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

This summer's World Cup will kick off on 20 July when New Zealand face Norway and the Republic of Ireland take on co-hosts Australia.

RTÉ Sport will broadcast the entire tournament, including Ireland's historic first appearance at the finals.

"Given the high potential for this competition and the sporting and social stakes attached to it, we see it as our duty to mobilise all stakeholders so they can swiftly find an arrangement," the French, German, Italian, Spanish and British ministers said in a statement published in Paris.

The ministers acknowledged "legitimate interests and budgetary constraints weighing both on rights-holders and independent broadcasters", as well as "specific organisational constraints likely to affect the 'market value'" of the rights.

But French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told broadcaster France 2 on Wednesday that "FIFA will probably have to be less greedy and remember that the [kick-off] timing throws up hurdles" to profiting from the competition.

She and her colleagues Nancy Faeser [Germany], Miquel Iceta i Llorens [Spain], Andrea Abodi [Italy] and Lucie Frazer [Britain] insisted that "media exposure for women's sport has a very significant impact on the development of sporting participation by women and girls".

FIFA's general secretary Fatma Samoura recently said that TV broadcasters should buy the women's football rights "at a fair price".

"Should the offers continue not to be fair [towards women and women's football], we will be forced not to broadcast the FIFA Women's World Cup into the 'Big Five' European countries,"