A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Surge in popularity of women’s game means 2023 event will be biggest yet
IT IS 31 years since FIFA organised an international tournament for women’s teams. That competition is now remembered as the inaugural World Cup. But in 1991, the governing body for the global game was still so protective of its brand, and wary of doing anything that would dull its corporate allure in any way, that it did not allow it to be called a World Cup.
Instead, China hosted the ‘1st FIFA World Championship for Women’s Football for the M&Ms Cup’.
Try fitting that on a keyring.
But then there wasn’t much demand for merchandise. There was a reasonably enthusiastic greeting from Chinese crowds at the games, and the United States set an early marker as the sport’s dominant team when winning out.
However, it was nothing compared to the tournament that Vera Pauw’s players are so desperate to reach in Australia and New Zealand next summer.
That will be the biggest women’s World Cup yet, expanding from 24 teams to 32, and the first time it has been co-hosted.
It also comes in the slipstream of two big successes: the 2019 edition held in France, when the standard of play hit new levels, and the European Championships held in England this past summer, which won over tens of thousands of new fans in the country that is home to the wealthiest and best-supported league in the world.
In 30 years, the women’s
World Cup has assumed a sporting prestige and commercial attraction that are the result of the explosion in popularity of women’s soccer over the past generation.
England’s Euros’ final win over Germany attracted a peak audience of 17.5 million viewers on the BBC, for instance, and the Lionesses became a sporting brand that drew fans from across society.
They will be one of the heavyweight contenders next summer, part of a competition whose growth is not n e c e s s a r i l y down to the usual factors that attend an expanded format.
The enthusiasm for growing tournaments ordinarily causes suspicion.
The bloated spread of the men’s competitions is seen as a way of powerful administrators strengthening their support: by admitting more countries, they curry favour with more national associations, and trust that they won’t be forgotten when votes or other support is required. That’s why the plan remains for the men’s edition to expand to 48 teams by 2026.
There are more wholesome reasons behind the growth of the women’s version, with more competitive teams, improving standards and, of course, interest from the commercial markets also a reason. Even the convoluted play-off system to fill the remaining slots is exercising a fascination.
The men’s World Cup in Qatar later this year will end up luring in supporters, but the taint of the location, and how the tournament came to end up there, will not be easily eradicated.
Compare that to the good news story that is the women’s version. It will be one of the great sporting set-pieces of 2023, and the most vivid global manifestation of the power of women in sport.
And all this from modest roots, only set in living memory, too. Unofficial World Cups were held in 1970 and 1971, the first in Italy and the second in Mexico. With interest high after the country hosted the men’s tournament in 1970, Mexicans flocked to matches in 1971, with six-figure attendances reported for some games.
Many countries still banned women’s teams through the 1970s and 1980s, but the movement for change was growing, and a test tournament – including 12 teams – was held in China in 1988.
Three years later came FIFA’s half-hearted, pseudonymous first World Cup.
Victory there was the first of four that the USA have recorded.
The country is the power-base of the women’s game and, alongside those four Word Cup wins, the Americans finished as runners-up on another occasion and were placed third the three remaining times.
Denise O’Sullivan stars for North Carolina Courage in the National Women’s Soccer League, and bears witness to the popularity of soccer in the country.
‘It’s huge there, and I think it’s gotten a lot better over the past few years,’ said the Ireland star.
‘I think the attendances have gone up a lot. Going to Portland, you’re getting 15,000, 20,000.
‘Now, there are two new expansion teams that have come in, San Diego and LA, and I think one game was a sell-out, 32,000.
‘More people are getting attracted to the game, which is phenomenal, and the league has grown a lot.
‘It’s very competitive. You never know what the score is going to be, whether you’re a top-of-the-table team or bottom of the table.’
And all that stems from the success of the national side, itself a consequence of the long-standing strength of women’s soccer at school and underage levels.
Yet in a sign of the disparities that still remain, it was only on Wednesday that years of negotiation, promises and litigation concluded, and an agreement was signed that guarantees equal pay for the women’s and men’s national sides in the US.
The highest average attendance for a World Cup, 37,944, came at the 1999 tournament, the first of two consecutively held in the country.
That average fell to 21,756 in France last time out, the lowest at a World Cup in 16 years.
But, against that, TV audiences broke all records, with a total viewing figure across all territories of 1.12 billion. Next year’s will also be the first World Cup since FIFA took the decision to sell sponsorship and commercial arrangements for the women’s version as a stand-alone competition, and not as part of a bundle with the much more lucrative men’s one.
The 2023 edition will pose challenges in that regard, given the time differences between Australasia and the big markets in the US and Europe.
Cost and distance will also greatly impact the number of travelling fans.
What should remain high is the standard of play that cranked up a level or two in France three years
ago. It wasn’t a flawless experience, though. One of the best players in the world missed that competition.
Ada Hegerberg of Norway refused to take part, in protest at how she believed the Norwegian Football Association treated the women’s game.
Hegerberg is one of the best players in the world, and she made her senior debut for her country when she was still 16.
She is a star for Olympique Lyonnais, one of the best players in the world, and has won six Champions League in their colours. She was also the first winner of the women’s Ballon D’Or award, in 2018.
An incident at the ceremony, when the compere asked her if she was able to twerk, drew a storm of protest and was a mortifying example of the persistence of old attitudes.
She finally returned to the national team earlier this year, and has led them to the top of their group in qualifying for next year’s World Cup.
Hegerberg will be one of the stars in Australia and New Zealand next summer, on and off the pitch.
She is probably the best striker in the women’s game, but she is also regarded as one of the most important figures in the sport.
This is due to her commercial power, but also because of the stand she took against her own FA.
England’s win at the Euros this summer means they will also travel with high profiles off the field, and serious pressure to deliver more success on it.
The appointment of a female manager to replace the big-name but underwhelming Phil Neville was the main reason for their success.
Sarina Wiegman won the European Championships with her native Holland in 2017, before bringing them to the runners-up spot at the World Cup two years later.
Her appointment following the departure of Neville was sourced in sound sporting reasons, but it was also symbolically important.
A woman managing a women’s
team brought England into line with France and Germany, two of the most powerful European sides and who will both contend at the next World Cup.
The top-ranked side in the world, the USA, won the last two World Cups under Jill Scott, but they are now managed by a man, Vlatko Andonovski.
At the highest level, results trump idealism, symbolism and the power of role models, but there is an undoubted power in the game’s leading teams being led by women.
Neville’s critics, as well as finding fault with his tactics and his ingame decision-making, also accused him of using the growing profile of
the women’s team as a means of boosting his faltering managerial career.
And the power of a woman as head coach is well understood in this country, given what Vera Pauw has done since assuming control of the Irish side.
But among those teams that will be travelling south next summer intent on winning, the identity of the manager will be less important than making the most of their resources.
In that regard, it will be a tournament not about symbolism or role models or legacies. It will be about winning, in the best tradition of meaningful sporting contests.