WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2023 PREVIEW

It’s been a landmark twelve months for the women’s game, as unprecedented investment in grassroots football, soaring broadcasting revenues, and sky-rocketing attendances have served to completely re-calibrate its position in the global sporting hierarchy.

More girls than ever before are now participating in football, and this summer’s Women’s World Cup will surely be a further catalyst to the game’s increasing popularity. Indeed, co-hosts Australia and New Zealand, who conspire to stage the first 32-team edition of international football’s mostprestigious event, are confident the tournament will inspire the next generation of Australasians – and particularly those from indigenous backgrounds – to embrace the beautiful game, as well as present and promote their respective domestic leagues to a captive footballing audience. Indeed, the immediate legacy of last summer’s European Championships on English soil – still being keenly felt across the length and breadth of the country – illustrates the scale of the potential reward on offer.

Perhaps the most staggering development in the women’s game can be charted in crowd figures, with elite-level games now attracting tens of thousands of fans on a regular basis. An incredible 87,192 spectators crammed into Wembley to watch the Lionesses prevail against Germany in Euro 2022’s showpiece, taking the tournament’s cumulative attendance total to 574,875 – an eye-watering uplift of 334,820 on the previous record, set four years prior in the Netherlands. All of Europe’s major leagues – England’s WSL, Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga, France’s Division 1 Féminine, and Spain’s Liga F – have reported significant growth in gate numbers, as has the increasingly influential UEFA Women’s Champions League. However, this phenomenon isn’t reserved to a European context, with similar data materialising in other parts of the world, such as the U.S, Mexico, and indeed Australia.

The hosts appear well-equipped to deal with the inevitable deluge of fans. There are ten stadiums earmarked for the finals (six in Australia and four in New Zealand), with all but one – Adelaide’s 16,500-capacity Cooper Stadium – able to accommodate at least 25,000 spectators. The climax to the ninth edition of the Women’s World Cup, which will commence on Thursday 20th July and conclude exactly one month later on Sunday 20th August, will take place at Sydney’s Stadium Australia, which was constructed in preparation for the city’s hosting of the Summer Olympics in 2000, and boasts an impressive capacity of 82,500.

Although both host nations have witnessed a tangible improvement in participation rates of late, the progression of women’s football (or more aptly, soccer) in Australia and New Zealand is perhaps a little behind the curve. The A-League Women, established four years after its male equivalent launched, has been a superb vehicle for the development of the Australian game, and also provided a springboard for local talent. Chelsea’s Sam Kerr, who has amassed over 50 goals for the Blues in a four-year trophy-laden spell, commenced her career at Perth Glory, whilst marauding full-back Ellie Carpenter, a twotime UEFA Champions League winner with French powerhouses Olympique Lyonnais, featured for several A-League sides as a youngster. Similarly, New Zealand’s National Women’s League has been upwardly mobile in recent seasons, expanding to incorporate more teams, and undergoing a series of infrastructural improvements. Famous Kiwi exports include centre-forward Hannah Wilkinson, who enjoyed stints in Germany, Portugal, and Sweden before returning to her native continent with Melbourne City in 2021, and defender Meikayla Moore, who has just lifted the Women’s Scottish Premier League title with Glasgow City.

So, will either the Football Ferns or Matilda’s have enough in their locker to go all the way? Unfortunately, probably not. Australia have reached the knockout stages in four of the last five World Cups, but have been unable to progress beyond the quarter-finals on each occasion. Of course, home advantage may well propel them to navigate an extra round, but given that this tournament will be the most competitive yet, even a semi-final appearance seems unlikely. Conversely, New Zealand – in similarity to the men’s national side – have never managed to get out of a World Cup group, and therefore assume the role of plucky underdogs. Nevertheless, the cohosts will be confident they can at least be competitive in a tricky Group A, as they pursue their first-ever win in the competition.

The usual suspects assume the role of favourites. Still buzzing from last July’s European Championship heroics, England will be desperate to clinch successive major honours, as they attempt to improve on their fourth-place finish last time out. Head Coach Sarina Wiegman, who saw her Netherlands side lose out to the United States in the World Cup final four years ago, has an array of worldclass talent at her disposal, with Barcelona duo Lucy Bronze and Keira Walsh, last year’s Ballon d’Or runner-up Beth Mead, and WSL top scorer Rachel Daly all poised. Spain will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with, despite a sixteen-strong player mutiny threatening to derail their hopes – stars such as Patri

Guijarro, Aitana Bonmatí, Sandra Paños, and Alexia Putellas, who play alongside Bronze and Walsh at Barça, may all miss out as a consequence. For over two decades, Germany ruled the roost over their continental adversaries, winning the European Championships on eight occasions (six of them consecutively) between 1989 and 2013. However, they’ve far from had it their way of late, having failing to reach the last four in three of their last five major tournament appearances. Nevertheless, anyone writing off the Germans does so at their peril.

The overwhelming favourites, as is usually the case, are the United States. The Stars and Stripes have never secured less than bronze at a World Cup finals, and are the competition’s most successful side with four triumphs to their name. Vlatko Andonovski’s side have won each of their last eight fixtures – a sequence which helped them to claim a sixth SheBelieves Cup in early Spring – after succumbing to a string of disappointing friendly defeats last Autumn. An ominous sign for their upcoming opponents?

Whoever emerges on top down under, fans watching this summer’s festival of football unfold can be assured of one thing: this will be a Women’s World Cup like no other.