Stop zooming in on beautiful women - World Cup broadcasters warned

FIFA's Head of Sustainability and Diversity Federico Addiechi this week asked broadcasters of the 2018 World Cup not to focus too much on women in the stands during the tournament.

Addiechi noted that this was in line with cutting sexism in football, saying coverage should mainly focus on what is happening on the pitch.

It is common for directors to televise various shots of fans to capture emotion and mood but you may have noticed that some channels often zoom in on drop-dead gorgeous ladies during the match to bring some ‘excitement’.

Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), a body which observes the behavior of fans during such tournaments revealed that there were several cases of women being accosted during the global showpiece.

Piara Powar, FARE executive director, however, praised the host nation Russia noting that all fans were warmly welcomed and enjoyed their stay throughout the month.

“The Russian people played a magnificent role in making people feel welcome. There were no issues to report on Russians inside stadiums.

“We hope that this World Cup will have a long-term impact on Russian society."

He added: “The Russian state together with the Russian Football Union did quite a lot of work in terms of ruling off individuals that there were concerns about.

“A number of individuals were denied their FAN IDs. All this combined led to quite a good tournament.”