WOMEN'S FOOTBALL
Staggering statistics demonstrate FIFA Women’s World Cup growth
- Three African teams have reached the Round of 16 for the first time in the Women’s World Cup
- Nigeria became the first African nation to complete their group unbeaten.
- Morocco is the first African team to win two successive matches and keep clean sheets in successive matches.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 is capturing the hearts and minds of football fans not only in the two co-host countries but across the globe.
At the end of the Group Stage, records have been broken in areas as diverse as ticket sales, broadcast figures and digital media data.
The tournament has also set new benchmarks for performances on the pitch, as well as creating new highs in hospitality and merchandise sales, as well as for the number of participating volunteers.
The tournament is truly going Beyond Greatness to, with sixteen captivating days and sixteen thrilling matches of the ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup remaining.
On the field, countries from all continents are writing their own piece of history. For the first time, teams from all six Confederations won a match at the tournament.
New Zealand became the first team from Oceania to register a victory, while the Philippines, Zambia, Portugal, Jamaica, South Africa, and Morocco also got their first win. Africa’s representatives are breaking all kinds of records.
Three teams have reached the Round of 16. Nigeria became the first African nation to complete their group unbeaten. Morocco is the first African team to win two successive matches and keep clean sheets in successive matches. Fans from the co- host nations, as well as tens of thousands of travelling supporters have fully embraced the biggest women’s sports event on the planet, with an average of 25,476 fans attending the 48 first-round matches, a 29% increase from attendances at France 2019.
By Friday 4 August, over 1,715,000 tickets had been sold, comfortably surpassing pre-tournament ticket sales targets. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the record crowd for a football match in the country– women’s or men’s – was broken twice in 12 days, first in the opening match and subsequently eclipsed when 42,958 fans watched Portugal take on the United States of America.
In Australia, the tournament also set a record for a standalone women’s football match, when 75,784 fans attended Australia’s opener against Republic of Ireland.
At the previous FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, ten matches across the entire tournament attracted over 25,000 spectators. By comparison, this year’s Group Stage has already seen twenty-one matches surpass the 25,000 mark.
Hospitality sales meanwhile are tracking 27% above France 2019, and 534% above Canada 2015. As the tournament pauses for breath before the knock-out stage commences, broadcast figures from around the world have equally been overwhelmingly positive, with records broken across multiples countries on a near daily basis.
Some of the many highlights include the Matildas’ final group game against Canada reaching 4.71 million Australians to become channel Seven’s most watched programme this year. In Aotearoa New Zealand around 1.88 million, a third of the population, has been watching the tournament.
Colombia’s first group match tripled the highest television audience from the previous FIFA Women’s World Cup (2.84 million) and even eclipses all audiences from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, except for the Final. China PR produced the highest audience for a single match anywhere in the world with 53.9 million viewers watching their team take on England.
In the United States, more fans watched their team play against Netherlands, than any other previous group stage match in history (6.43m).
The skyrocketing television audiences have been replicated on FIFA’s digital platforms. Traffic in the first 15 days has already surpassed the entirety of the 2019 tournament, welcoming 22 million unique users, with an average of 2.4 million users visiting FIFA Women’s World Cup channels daily.
FIFA committed to providing the 32 participating member associations with the same level of support as the men’s teams received at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. So far, 410 training sessions – 88 at the Venue Specific Training Sites and 322 at the Team Base Camp Training Sites – have been facilitated, another first for this tournament.
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For those sessions, over 2,000 cones were provided to teams in Australia and 1,600 in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as 1,536 adidas footballs for training purposes, 1,280 Official Match Balls and 6,748 bibs for teams and match operations.
In the FIFA Fan Festivals, another ‘first’ was achieved, with sites created in each of the nine host cities. To date, over 400,000 fans watched the matches, with Sydney/Gadigal recording the single day record of 17,756 fans.
The tournament across multiple sites has been supported by 5,000 volunteers who have brought the greatest ever FIFA Women’s World Cup™ to life, doubling the number of volunteers in 2019. The overwhelming majority of volunteers are from the two co-host countries, while around 5% of volunteers travelled from sixty-eight different nations, representing all six FIFA Confederations.
The Iranian soccer team sang and saluted their national anthem ahead of their final Women’s Asian Cup match against the Philippines on Sunday, six days after their decision to remain silent saw them labelled “wartime traitors” on state TV back home.
The Iranians, whose situation had become a cause celebre among human rights campaigners, will play no further part in the tournament after a 2-0 loss to the Philippines at Gold Coast Stadium in the state of Queensland.
Iran coach Marziyeh Jafari told the post-match news conference that the team was keen to return home.
“We are very impatiently waiting to return,” she told reporters. “Personally, I would like to return to my country as soon as possible and be with my compatriots and family.”
Some fans, who had waved the pre-1979 Iranian flag and booed the national anthem inside the ground, tried to prevent the team coach from leaving the stadium precinct, chanting “Save our girls!”.
Reza Pahlavi, an American-based opposition activist and son of the Shah of Iran who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, called on the Australian government to ensure the team’s safety and give them any needed support.
‘ONGOING THREAT’
“The members of the Iranian Women’s National Football Team are under significant pressure and ongoing threat from the Islamic Republic,” he posted on social media platform X.
“As a result of their brave act of civil disobedience in refusing to sing the current regime’s national anthem, they face dire consequences should they return to Iran.”
The team’s campaign in Australia started last weekend just as the U.S. and Israel launched air strikes on their homeland, killing the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The players declined to sing the anthem before their loss to South Korea in their tournament opener on March 2, a decision a commentator on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said showed a lack of patriotism and was the “pinnacle of dishonour”.
They did sing the anthem and saluted before their second defeat against the host nation on Thursday, sparking fears among Australian human rights campaigners that they had been coerced by government minders
A petition launched on Friday on the Change.org website urging Australia to give refuge to the team had gathered more than 51,000 signatures late on Sunday.
The petition called on Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to ensure the team did not depart Australia “while credible fears for their safety remain”.
Burke declined to comment on the petition via a spokesperson. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in televised remarks that she did not want to “get into commentary about the Iranian women’s team”.
“Obviously this is a regime that we know has brutally cracked down on its people,” she said.
Players union FIFPRO had previously called on the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and FIFA to uphold their human rights obligations and undertake all necessary steps to ensure the safety of Iran’s squad in the wake of the broadcast.
–Reuters
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Japan delivered a ruthless attacking display to thrash India 11-0 on Saturday and book their place in the quarter-finals of the Women’s Asian Cup, while Taiwan secured their first win of the tournament with a narrow 1-0 victory over Vietnam in the other Group C match in Perth.
The Group C leaders, champions in 2014 and 2018, completely overwhelmed India at the Perth Rectangular Stadium, dominating possession and pinning their opponents deep inside their own half for most of the match. India failed to register a single shot as Japan’s relentless attack exposed the gulf in quality between the two sides.
Japan raced into an early lead in the fourth minute when Yuzuki Yamamoto curled in a superb opener before Yui Hasegawa added a second. Hinata Miyazawa then struck twice to extend the advantage, while Kiko Seike converted from the penalty spot to give Japan a commanding 5-0 lead at halftime.
Despite making three changes at the break, Japan showed no signs of easing off. Substitute Riko Ueki made an immediate impact, scoring twice within three minutes before completing her hat-trick in just 18 minutes after Maya Hijikata had also found the net.
Miyazawa rounded off the emphatic victory in the 81st minute to complete her own hat-trick, sealing an 11-0 scoreline that underlined Japan’s dominance as the highest-ranked team in Asia against an Indian side ranked 59 places below them.
Earlier in the day, Taiwan claimed their first victory of the tournament with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Vietnam.
Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the first half with a well-taken header to give the three-time Asian champions the lead in a contest where clear chances were limited.
Vietnam, who reached the quarter-finals in the previous edition, pushed forward in search of an equaliser and registered nine attempts on goal. However, none were on target as Taiwan’s disciplined defence held firm to preserve their slender advantage until the final whistle.
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The global representative organisation for professional footballers, FIFPRO, has urged governing bodies responsible for the 2026 Women’s Asian Football Confederation Cup to protect the Iran national team after they were labelled “wartime traitors” by an Iranian state television presenter.
Both FIFA, world football’s governing body, and the AFC have been called upon to “undertake all necessary steps to ensure the safety of Iran’s Women’s National Team players”.
The Iran women’s national football team players did not sing their national anthem before their Asian Cup opener against South Korea in Australia earlier this week.
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi said in a video that the players showed a lack of patriotism and their actions amounted to the “pinnacle of dishonour” in footage circulating widely on social media.
“Let me just say one thing: traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely,” Shahbazi said.
“Anyone who takes a step against the country under war conditions must be dealt with more severely. Like this matter of our women’s football team not singing the national anthem … these people must be dealt with more severely.”
In a statement released on the social media platform X, FIFPRO released a strong and lengthy statement outlining its concerns.
“In addition to the dangerous situation the players would face if they return to Iran following the tournament, FIFPRO Asia/Oceania is deeply concerned by reports that Iranian state television has publicly attacked the members of the team for remaining silent during the national anthem before their opening match,” the statement read.
“Footage circulating online shows Mohammad Reza Shahbazi, a state TV presenter, calling for them to face the ‘stigma of dishonour and betrayal’.
“These statements significantly heighten concerns for the players’ safety should they return to Iran after the tournament.
“FIFPRO Asia/Oceania has once again written to the AFC and FIFA, calling on them to uphold their human rights obligations under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and FIFA’s Human Rights Policy and protect the players.
“We call on the AFC and FIFA to urgently engage with the Iranian Football Association, the Australian Government and all other relevant authorities to ensure that every effort is made to protect the safety of the players.”
The Iranian players stood in silence when Iran’s anthem was played at the Gold Coast ahead of their 3-0 opening loss to South Korea on Monday, though they sang and saluted before a 4-0 defeat by hosts Australia three days later.
The Reuters news agency has contacted both the Asian Football Confederation, the Iranian football federation and the team at the Asian Cup for comment.
Ahead of their game against Australia, Iran forward Sara Didar fought back tears and spoke about the war, while coach Marziyeh Jafari said her players were doing their best to focus on the tournament despite concern for their families back home.
Iran face the Philippines on Sunday in their final group match.
-Aljazeera
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