On International Women’s Day, FIFA continues to be tone deaf about issues of equality

FIFA finally did it – on International Women’s Day 2020 they decided to make things equal between women and men. Not in prize money, mind you. Or in marketing. Or even by doing something simple and zero-cost like officially renaming “FIFA World Cup” to “FIFA Men’s World Cup.” No, they did it by including an equal number of men in an ad campaign celebrating the day devoted to the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, and in doing so they highlighted just how out-of-touch they remain on the issue of equality.

The campaign features a large mosaic with photos of 96 prominent international soccer stars from around the globe – 48 men and 48 women – and the slogan “Each For Equal”. There’s no text or message to accompany it or explain FIFA’s vision on the topic, just the hashtag. Beyond the absurdity of highlighting men on the one day of the year focused specifically on the achievements of women, some of the men selected have been specifically called out due to their complete silence on the issue of equality.

On the Women’s World Cup Instagram page, the mosaic has been split into six separate images and occupies the entire top of the page in big, bold color.

On the Men’s World Cup Instagram page? It’s a single small image, stuck between five unrelated images of men doing men things.

On International Women’s Day, FIFA has devoted 50% of the visual space on the Women’s World Cup Instagram page to images of men. On the Men’s World Cup Instagram page, women get 8% of the visual space to promote the message of women’s empowerment and equality.

Perhaps unintentionally, FIFA has once again made clear their level of commitment to women compared to men.