FIFA has instructed broadcasters to stop focusing on “hot women” in the crowd at football matches.
FIFA’s head of sustainability and diversity Federico Addiechi says the sport’s governing body “would take action against things that are wrong”.
"We've done it with individual broadcasters. We've done it with our host broadcast services," he said.
Speaking before Croatia’s semi-final win over England, Addiechi said the crackdown was not yet a “proactive campaign”.
“This is one of the activities we definitely will have in future - it's a normal evolution," he responded when asked if the edict would become official FIFA policy.
Anti-discrimination group Fare Network says sexism has been the biggest problem of the World Cup.
Prior to the tournament, racism and homophobia were identified as areas if concern but Fair Network executive director Piara Powar said sexism was the main area of discrimination.
Powar said there had been several cases where female reporters had been groped or kissed while on air and there were numerous cases of Russian women who were “accosted in the streets” by male fans.
Photographic agency Getty Images had also been caught up in a sexism storm after publishing a gallery of exclusively young women called “the hottest fans at the World Cup.”
Getty later removed the gallery, calling it a “regrettable error in judgement” and launching an internal investigation.
SHARE ME