Sarai Bareman speaks during the FIFA Women's Football Convention at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles on June 06, 2019 in Paris, France. Photo / Getty Images.
Sarai Bareman speaks during the FIFA Women's Football Convention at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles on June 06, 2019 in Paris, France. Photo / Getty Images.
FIFA's head of women's football Sarai Bareman is thinking big, confident that the 2023 Women's World Cup will be the largest sporting event ever seen on these shores.
West Auckland-born Bareman, who has made a remarkable rise to the top echelon of FIFA after cutting her teeth in football administrationin the Pacific, believes the global women's showpiece event will deliver an impact that few Kiwis can currently envisage.
Speaking at the launch of the brand, slogan and emblem for the 2023 tournament, which will be co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, Bareman said the event would leave a massive footprint.
"I'm very proud to be a New Zealander and the fact that this event is coming to my home country is incredible," said Bareman. "Rugby is obviously a major, major sport in New Zealand. I grew up in a rugby mad family and I have three brothers.
"But I don't think New Zealand is quite ready for what the women's World Cup will bring to its shores. It really is a massive global event. It outstrips the Rugby World Cup in terms of viewership, attendance and everything.
"What I am most excited about is for the people back home to see, feel and understand how big this event - and how big women's football - actually is."
FIFA hope the 2023 event will be another step forward - "bigger, better and more successful".
The 2019 tournament in France was a milestone, with a global television audience of 1.12 billion across 205 countries. There was prominent coverage across all major newspapers and media networks and certain players became household names during the event.
"The biggest change maker for the women's game has been the women's World Cup, by far," said Bareman. "The numbers in France pushed women's football into the mainstream."
FIFA hopes the 2023 event will be another step forward – "bigger, better and more successful". The first step in the process came on Thursday evening, with the launch of the marketing elements.
With the slogan "Beyond Greatness", the branding includes an emblem that has drawn on distinctive elements, including Māori and Aboriginal culture, and a colourful palette representing the 32 participating nations.
"It's an out of the box approach, a total departure from anything that FIFA has done in the past," said Bareman. "With the slogan, combined with the visual identity, there is an underlying theme that is going to underpin everything that we do in the tournament."
Despite the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on events – and everyday life - Bareman is confident that the 2023 tournament will go ahead as planned, with travelling fans and full stadia.
"Both governments are working very hard on opening the borders and making sure that Covid is something that can be lived with," said Bareman. "I'm following very closely what is happening there; most of [my family] live in Auckland. The measures that are being put in place by the two governments will mean that we have an open situation in 2023 and both countries will be able to welcome fans, players teams and everyone that wants to enjoy the women's World Cup."
Covid has presented challenges in the preparations and planning, but "flexibility and adaptability" were key and "everything was on track".
Bareman is confident local audiences will embrace the tournament, helped by a "robust ticketing strategy", while the fact that Australia and New Zealand were developing football nations was an opportunity, as well as a challenge.
Bareman is also part of the controversial discussion around shifting both senior World Cups to biennial events, which has provoked strongly polarising views.
"We are in the midst of a consultation process, [with] very robust discussions around it," said Bareman. "I won't say that we have reached any conclusions but the collective goal of everyone involved is to ensure that anything we propose is going to better the situation of women's football."
But Bareman's excitement around 2023 is unmistakable, and she points out that the upcoming tournament has already left a small but unique legacy within the FIFA offices in Switzerland.
"In all our official [tournament] meetings, [we] are incorporating use of the two indigenous languages," said Bareman. "I love it. To start to see the cultures of both Australia and New Zealand seep into the day to day work that we are doing here in FIFA is something that everyone who is involved in the tournament is totally embracing.
"It is funny for me to hear some of my colleagues speaking Māori to me these days but it is something that I totally welcome and something that is really important as we build up to this event. I'm a proud product of the Pacific region and it is really important that those cultures really shine through."
The 2023 women's World Cup kicks off on 20 July, with the final a month later. The 64 matches are spread across nine host cities, including Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin.
