World cup a success, India must promote women’s football
An exciting edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup ended in Australia on Sunday, with troubled Spain defeating England for the crown. It was indeed a pathbreaking tournament. No other edition of the WWC has gained the kind of traction and publicity that this one did. This was easily the biggest one yet, and not just because 32 teams featured for the first time. The previous record for best total attendance at a WWC stood at 1,353,506 in Canada in 2015.
This edition surpassed that record before the quarterfinals even began and the average per match attendance was 5,000 more than the previous edition in France. It was also the first to be hosted across multiple countries—Australia and New Zealand, and featured a prize-money pool of $110 mn, $80 mn more than the last edition. Australia’s semifinal against England was the most-watched programme on Australian television since ratings began in 2001. It truly feels as if, for the women’s game, a corner has been turned.
Results on the pitch, too, indicate that women’s football has come a long way. The USA—finalists in the last three editions and champions in the last two—crashed out in pre-quarters. Jamaica, where the women’s football programme was restarted only in 2014, held France and Brazil to draws. The Philippines, playing in their first World Cup, managed a win over New Zealand. Neither of the two—Spain and England—had played a final before.
The multidimensional success of the 2023 WWC is perhaps a good opportunity to re-examine India’s place in the global game. Women’s football in the country has long been neglected. Even as positive noises have been made over the last year, it is hard to point out tangible change, or at least concrete steps that guarantee tangible change. In spite of all this, the gap between the Indian women’s game and global standards remain much more bridgeable than the men’s version.
As Jamaica has shown, even a women’s football programme run optimally for a decade can show results. India is currently 60th on the FIFA rankings and 11th in Asia. Even managing to climb a few steps up the ladder could see them in contention for a World Cup berth. Australia’s run at the WWC saw the Matildas become the nation’s most valuable sporting team. A similar revolution in Indian women’s football could be a gamechanger for all of Indian sport.