Some were concerned that there might be an increase in one-sided games in Australia and New Zealand if the number of teams was increased from 24.
Nigeria, South Africa, Jamaica, and Morocco—all teams with world rankings below 40—made it out of the group stage.
On Sunday, the final between Spain and England will be played at Stadium Australia in Sydney (11:00 BST kickoff), bringing an end to the month-long event.
Infantino claimed that FIFA’s efforts to advance women’s football around the world were successful.
As he continued his Friday speech in Sydney, he said, “We invested one billion US dollars in developing the game all over the world, and the women’s game was specifically targeted.”
“We did that in spite of Covid which impacted us all. Women’s football remained alive even in the most difficult of times. We decided to increase the number of teams at the World Cup to 32.”
“I remember when we decided to do that of course the usual critics, which are less and less, were saying it’s not going to work and the level is too different.”
“There would be 15-0 scores, it will be bad for women’s football and its image.”
“As it happens quite often in the last years, Fifa was right once more. We had eight debutants. We had many countries around the world who thought suddenly they had a chance to participate.”
The World Cup has already broken the record for the number of spectators in attendance with 1.85 million.
“This World Cup generated over $570m (£447m) in revenues, and so we broke even,” said Infantino.
“We didn’t lose any money and we generated the second highest income of any sport, besides of course the men’s World Cup, at a global stage.”
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