When the inaugural Fifa-backed Women’s World Cup took place in 1991, the tournament was given a weird title designed to distance it from the “real” competition – the one played by men. Notwithstanding a lack of resources and a belittling name, the “First Fifa Women’s World Championship for the M&Ms Cup” was an undeniable success and a beginning.
As the ninth Women’s World Cup kicks off in Australia and New Zealand on Thursday, such crass chauvinism has largely disappeared. But the booming popularity of the female game continues to outstrip expectations. The demand for tickets for Australia’s opening game with the Republic of Ireland was such that the match had to be moved from a 45,000-capacity venue to Sydney’s Accor Stadium, which holds more than 80,000. A year after England’s Lionesses actually did bring football home by winning Euro 22, Australia’s Matildas look set to enjoy a similar level of passionate backing.
Plenty of other impressive numbers suggest that this World Cup will be a superb showcase for the planet’s most upwardly mobile sport. Thirty-two countries – a record number – will compete in 10 venues across nine cities. Close to one and a half million tickets, another record, have already been sold. Fifa hopes for a global television audience of 2 billion, compared with the 1.12 billion viewers who tuned in to the 2019 edition in France. That figure amounted to almost a third of the television audience that watched the men’s World Cup the previous year.
These are stellar statistics. But this being women’s football, perpetually undervalued and underfunded, due recognition and reward are never achieved without a struggle. This year, finally, broadcasting rights to the games have been sold separately from the men’s competition, and the money on offer has tripled to $152m. Parity with the men has been promised for 2027.
After admirable collective pressure from players for a levelling-up of pay and conditions, Fifa has also agreed to pay a proportion of the money directly to team members – an invaluable boost to the careers of those representing poorer countries in an amateur or semi-professional capacity. In a sport developing at an uneven pace across the world, in which the average salary is about £11,300, much more needs to be done to level the playing field.
From Thursday, though, the focus will be on the football, in what promises to be the most open and exciting Women’s World Cup for a long time. The United States, winners of the past two tournaments, are a team in transition, and a hat-trick of triumphs may be beyond them. The Lionesses have the psychological boost of knowing what it takes to win a trophy, but have lost key stars such as Beth Mead and Leah Williamson to injury.
In front of a fervent home audience that has already taken the Matildas to its heart, the stage could be set for Australia’s prolific striker and captain, Sam Kerr, to inspire her side as Lionel Messi inspired Argentina in Qatar. As the women’s game blossoms across the world, feeding off the momentum afforded by occasions such as this, the spectacle of a famously sports-mad nation in jubilation would provide a fitting climax. Whoever triumphs in a month’s time, the biggest World Cup in the history of women’s football also has the ingredients to become the most memorable.
