When women ruled the World (Cup)...
WHAT was the biggest ever event in women’s sport? Many will suggest that it was last summer,’s Women’s World Cup Final which was watched by a live crowd of 75,000.
But actually it was the 1971 Women’s World Cup Final in Mexico City, where more than 110,000 fans packed into the Azteca Stadium to see the hosts play Denmark.
The amazing true story of this forgotten event is told in COPA 71, a thrilling, moving film featuring a wealth of never-seen footage.
Narrated by tennis legend Serena Williams and executive produced with her sister Venus, it will be in cinemas from March 8.
Carol Wilson and Trudy McCaffery of the England squad of the day are among the interviewees.
They are joined by representatives of all the teams, including Italy’s ferocious Elena Schiavo. Teammates talk in awe about her physical power and sheer aggression, something which becomes evident in footage of an on-pitch brawl during a match against Mexico.
In the end, the ref had to stop the match ten minutes early.
The film tracks down members of each of the six teams involved (Argentina and France also took part) including Ann Stengard and Birte Kjems from the eventual winners, Denmark.
Media interviews at the time with the girls, most of them teenagers, show them being mobbed at the airport and their hotels — before returning home to countries that ignored or belittled their achievements.
Fifa, to its everlasting shame, told football clubs that women were not permitted to play on their facilities. An official Women’s World Cup was only inaugurated in 1991.
The film’s director Rachel Ramsay said: ‘The idea that women’s football did not progress because women didn’t want it to is a myth that’s been perpetuated for a long time, along with the idea that women’s football was never commercial, that women didn’t want to play and that women weren’t any good.
‘That’s what this film blasts out of the water.’