Fifa is to fall short of gender equality with the prize money on offer at next year’s Women’s World Cup, despite making a record $15bn (£11.2bn) in revenue from this summer’s men’s tournament.

Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, said in 2023 that the organisation’s ambitionwas to have equality for the prize pot for 2027, saying: “Fifa is stepping up with actions, not just with words.” There had, therefore, been widespread hope across the women’s game that 2027’s prize pot would match the men’s on at least a per-team basis.

There were 48 teams at the men’s event and 32 women’s teams will participate in Brazil next summer, so a women’s pot two-thirds the size of the men’s $655m would have been regarded as parity, but it is understood the women’s prize money will be about a third of the men’s.

That does mark a substantial increase.…