On Sunday, Spain beat England 1-0 in the final of the Women’s World Cup. This was the end of an event that broke attendance and TV ratings records and gave women’s soccer fans hope for a rise in popularity.
The ninth version of the world’s biggest event was the first time it was held in the southern hemisphere. It was held in Australia and New Zealand.
When Sunday’s final crowd of 75,784 is added to the total, just under two million people will have gone through the gates in the nine host cities. This is despite the fact that local interest dropped when Australia lost in the semi-finals.
A goal from Olga Carmona was the difference between the two teams in a fast-paced game in which Spain had most of the clear-cut chances.
Thousands of fans were milling around Sydney’s Stadium Australia hours before the game started on Sunday. Groups of drummers and stilt walkers added to the fair mood.
Both England and Spain had never been to a Women’s World Cup final before, and England still hasn’t won a prize since the men’s event in 1966.
On Wednesday, when Australia lost to England in the semi-finals, an average of 7.13 million people watched the game on local stations of Seven Network. This is the most people who have ever watched a game, according to research company OzTAM, which started in 2001.
Tickets for Matildas games were sold out months in advance, and organizers think that once all 64 games are played, the average crowd will be more than 30,000.
Four years ago, the last Women’s World Cup was held in France. More than 1.1 million people went to 52 games, with an average crowd of 21,756.
New Zealand’s team lost in the group rounds because there wasn’t as much interest there. FIFA gave away a lot of tickets, and some games had as few as 7,000 people. However, when the White Ferns played, the crowds were the biggest ever for soccer games in the country.
GAP IN FUNDING
Australia’s players lost 2-0 to Sweden in a third-place playoff match on Saturday. Each of them will get $165,000 as a prize for this event, which is more than 300 times the A$750 ($480) they got in 2015 for making it to the quarter-finals.
But the sport needs more funding at the local level, Matildas star Sam Kerr said after Wednesday’s loss to England.
“We need funding for our development, and we need funding for our grassroots,” she said.
“You know, we need money everywhere,” he said.
Because of how well the Matildas did at the World Cup, there have been calls for more support for women’s soccer in Australia, where it isn’t as popular as rugby league and Australian rules.
After the Matildas made it to the semi-finals, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that he would give A$200 million to women’s sports.
Albanese said the money would be used to improve sports facilities for women and girls. Soccer is expected to get “significant resourcing.”
The government also wants to make sure that women’s sports events are shown on free-to-air TV. This is because most World Cup games that didn’t involve Australia were behind a paywall, which was criticized.
In women’s soccer, England and Spain, who are both trying to win their first world title on Sunday in Sydney, have faced a number of problems.
Women weren’t allowed in official venues in England, which is where the game started, until 1970. The women’s team has always been behind the men’s team in terms of attention and funds, but that started to change after the Lionesses won the European title last year.
The Spanish team, on the other hand, has had trouble with coach Jorge Vilda and the Spanish football league. As a result, some of their best players are not at the event.