Top five key differences between Women's and Men's World Cups

This is the most prestigious tournament for national teams

FIFA World Cup, the most prestigious tournament for national teams in association football. The quadrennial international tournament has two versions, one for men and one for women. The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the first iteration of this footballing competition for senior men. After long 61 years, Fédération Internationale de Football established the women's version of this International Competition.

Argentina won the 22nd edition of the Men's World Cup in the latest edition. It was a fairy-tale ending for Messi and Co. after defeating France 4-2 in the penalty-shootouts. And the recent edition of the Women's World Cup is the 9th edition and its taking place from 20 July to 20 August, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

To a casual football watcher, most parts including the rules of the Men's and Women's World Cups are pretty much similar and literally both the tournaments looks indistinguishable to each other visually. Even both the tournaments structured in similar way consisting Group Stages, Knock-out Stages, Quarterfinals, Semi-finals and the title decider World Cup Finale.

However, there are some extensive differences present that differentiate between the Men's and Women's World Cup. The key contrasts between both the versions of the quadrennial international tournament are as follows:-

5. Men's World Cup has the record of the highest viewership

The World Cup finale is the fairy-tale ending night for the La Albiceleste fans world-wide. The thrilling night of the Qatar World Cup 2022 Finale match has recorded around 1.5 billion views worldwide. But only 1.12 billion views was recorded into the official broadcast coverage of the previous edition of the Women's World Cup in 2019, with the stat of 17.27 million views averaging every live match. Fortunately, the Women's World Cup football is gaining popularity across different part of the globe and many global researches showing a golden horizon that the viewership of the Women's World Cup 2023 will cross 2 billion.

4. Significant difference between the Prize Money

The disparity between Men & Women's World Cup in terms of Prize Money proves the presence of gender gap in elite sports.FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Prize money was estimated at $440 million with qualifying teams receiving $1.5 million ahead of taking part, the Champion receiving $42million, the Runners-Up receiving $30 million and the other teams receiving at least $9 million based on their positions.

But, the total prize amount of the Women World Cup 2019 is only $30 million. Many notable women athletes came forward to protest the over the past few years. In 2022, the women footballing stars from US Women National Team like Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan & Carli Lord filed a gender-discrimination lawsuit and as a result, US Soccer Federation declares a historic equal-pay agreement for both the Men & Women athletes until at least 2028. FIFA boosted up the total Prize Amount to $150 million, but it's still less than half of the amount of the Men's tournament.

3. Men & Women Footballers played on Different Pitches

Since the incorporation of the Men's World Cup in 1930, it always have been played on the natural grass surface . The Women's World Cup have often been played on artificial turf. Historically, the difference of the field surfaces led to many controversies. Artificial Pitch is cheaper to maintain as it requires lesser simple least cost cutting measure. But different turfs makes a huge difference for the players.

Artificial pitch is prone to player injuries and affects the performance while making the connection between ball & players. The injuries caused by the Artificial Pitch takes long time to recover. It also highlights the gender discrimination in football. FIFA makes a historic announcement in 2019 to ban the use of the artificial pitch. The 2023 Women's World Cup is the first ever edition of Women's Football to be played on grass.

2. Number of Teams

There is also a major difference in the numbers of the teams participating in both version of the World Cups. The Men's World Cup currently consists of 32 qualifying nations divided into eight different groups, since 1998, the 16th edition of the Men's World Cup. The Women's World Cup founded in China in 1991 with only 12 teams and increased to 24 nations in the 2015 edition. This 2023 Women's World Cup is the first ever time that consists 32 teams worldwide as the Men's World Cup.

1. Men's World Cup is around a lot longer in the length of existence

The biggest dissimilarity between the Men's and Women's World Cup is the length of the tournament's existence. The FIFA Men's World Cup incorporated in the year of 1930 and the inaugural edition of the tournament held in Uruguay. The host country clinched the prestigious World Cup defeating Argentina in the finals. After the long 61 years of the incorporation of Men's World Cup, FIFA arranges the first edition of the Women's World Cup in 1991 in China with 12 nations worldwide.

In compare to ages, Women's World Cup is much younger. The Women's World Cup is just about 32 years old, while the Men's World Cup will hit the centennial anniversary in 2030. Both the quadrennial tournaments takes place after a four years gap ( World Cups of 1942 & 1946 were cancelled due to the Second World War). The Qatar World Cup 2022 is the 22 installments of the Men's World Cup while the 2023 Women's World Cup is the 9th installments of the Women's World Cup.