Visa has announced the sponsorship of Brazil’s Debinha and 32 other footballers, who represent 27 of the 32 teams that will take part in the Women’s World Cup, scheduled to take place in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20.

Time Visa includes, in addition to the Brazilian, the North Americans Catarina Macario, Sam Mewis and Mallory Swanson, the Canadian Christine Sinclair, the Australian Ellie Carpenter and the English Fran Kirby. With this “package”, they represent the largest number of female footballers ever sponsored by Visa.

Players from Germany, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica, United States, Philippines, France, England, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Vietnam are represented in the Visa referral program.

The company, FIFA’s first global women’s football partner in 2021 and which will have exclusive payment services for the 2023 World Cup, made the announcement 100 days before the start of the tournament.

“We have seen historic changes for fairness and equality in football in recent years, and Visa is committed to providing these resilient women with the tools and resources they need to continue working on a stronger footing. of equality. We are proud to welcome this incredible group of athletes to our Visa team,” said Andrea Fairchild, Senior Vice President and Chief Sponsorship Officer, Visa.

Since 2000, Visa has sponsored 500 athletes, just over half of whom were women. In women’s football, sponsorship provides crucial financial support to many of the athletes involved, due to the significant gaps that remain between men’s and women’s World Cup awards.

This year, FIFA will distribute US$110 million in prize money to World Cup participants. This is a 270% increase from the US$30 million paid out in the French edition in 2019. Four years earlier, in 2015, in Canada, US$15 million was paid out to participants .