Denis Balibouse/Reuters
This summer’s Women’s World Cup has gone so well that FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, nearly ran out of superlatives to describe it on Friday. Phenomenal, he said. Incredible. Emotional. Passionate. Fantastic. Great.
“It has been the best Women’s World Cup ever,” he finally declared.
So impressed was Infantino with the growth of the tournament — more than a billion viewers worldwide by Sunday, according to FIFA projections, and a doubling of live-match viewership since the last edition, in Canada in 2015 — that he said he planned to propose a significant expansion of the event, to 32 teams from its current 24, and a sizable infusion of cash, doubling not only prize money but also payments to countries and clubs to help their players train and prepare.