FIFA has approved additional five major European countries to broadcast the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup on the continent after a previous threat by the federation to blackout the tournament in those regions. 

The 2023 Women’s World Cup, scheduled to begin next month in Australia and New Zealand, will now be shown live during the competition in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and Italy after FIFA extended its agreement with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

An initial agreement by FIFA and EBU in 2022 only allowed the World Cup to be broadcasted free-to-air across 28 European territories, but the new agreement would now extend coverage to the five countries, as well as Ukraine.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino had last month threatened the five countries with blackouts over “unacceptable” bids from corporations in those countries for broadcasting rights to cover the tournament, which for the first time are being sold separately from those for the men’s World Cup.

He had said broadcasters were offering between $1 million to $100 million for coverage rights to this year’s Women’s World Cup compared to $100 million to $200 million for the men’s World Cup. However, the final amount paid by EBU for the broadcasting rights was not disclosed.

The deal will allow ITV and BBC to broadcast the tournament in Britain while ARD and ZDF in Germany and France’s RAI and RTVE will broadcast the World Cup in France, Italy and Spain, respectively.