Millions of people across the globe look forward to the FIFA World Cup, the biggest single sporting event in the world, which is held every four years. The same can’t be said about the FIFA Women’s World Cup but the gap is narrowing at an impressive pace in just nine editions. Women’s event of the sport is rapidly growing in terms of popularity and traction. The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France was hailed as a pinnacle of women’s football but this year’s edition, which concluded in Australia on Sunday with Spain defeating England in the final to take home the coveted title, was a path-breaking one. It’s easily the best ever in every aspect, be it traction, publicity and crowd; the most attended edition of the competition ever held with 19.78 lakh total attendance against 11.31 lakh in 2019 and the previous highest of 13.53 lakh recorded in 2015. Spain won the championship title but women’s football won. The number of teams was also expanded from 24 to 32, replicating the format that has been used for the men’s competition since 1998. In terms of prize-money pool for 2023 edition, it’s $110 million, a marked increase from the previous tournament, which was just $30 million. What made the recently concluded sporting even more exciting is the depth of women’s teams from all the continents, which points to the potential to pull in more crowd in the years to come. Most importantly, the quality of play throughout the tournament, the unpredictability and the level of competition tell that women’s football has come a long way, and it’s just a matter of time before it garners the attention and recognition it deserves.
The success of this World Cup should also serve as a reminder to all the countries that the competition is not going to get easier. The low-ranking teams like India should take a hint from the visible improvement in women’s football over the years and initiate concrete steps before it’s too late in order to compete with the best. As women’s football continues to grow from strength to strength, the FIFA also should address the huge pay disparity between men and women players. It increased the prize-money pool for this year’s tournament by $80 million (total $110 million) but it still falls well short of $440 million given to the male counterparts for 2022 World Cup. On a positive note, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said that it aspires to introduce pay parity in the next world cups — for men in 2026 and for women in the following year. Now, the world football’s governing body should keep its words and give woman footballers their due. Football lovers will, of course, expect the next Women’s World Cup to be spectacular.
