Wasn’t the women’s Football World Cup a huge success? Along with last year’s women’s Rugby World Cup, it’s been a wonderful way for Aotearoa New Zealand to return to the world stage after the pandemic.
We all know that women’s sport has played second fiddle to men’s sport for a long time, overlooked and undervalued. But, now, it feels like, finally, women’s sport is being treated on equal footing with men’s sport in this country.
With a global audience of over two billion people, women’s Football World Cup is probably the biggest international sporting event we’ve ever hosted in terms of its reach around the world. Fans came from all over – countries like Spain, the Philippines, and Norway – who have probably never had reason to visit Aotearoa for a sporting event before.
All those visitors, along with huge local support, especially from our immigrant communities, brought an energy to our stadiums that you rarely see here (except when Tonga or Samoa are playing). While men’s football has a problematic relationship with hooliganism, that’s not an issue with the women’s game – it was just people having a good time. The excitement was infectious and rubbed off on those of us who don’t usually follow football as well. That’s going to have positive results for the future of the sport in this country.
The use of Māori and Aboriginal names for the host cities, alongside their English ones, was also a nice touch that centred the indigenous peoples of the host countries. It shows a maturity on both sides of the Tasman that indigenous names could be used alongside English ones and no one serious has kicked up a stink about it.