This book offers a critical examination of the 2023 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup, being held in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Drawing on perspectives from sociology, history, political science, and management, it sheds new light on the development of women’s soccer and on women’s sport more broadly. In Spain, RTVE’s main channel La1 managed an average of 5.6 million viewers for La Roja’s 1-0 triumph in the final, equal to a market share of 65.7 per cent. Coverage peaked with 7.38 million viewers and a share of 71.1 per cent. It was the biggest audience for the channel since the men’s World Cup final last December. Interestingly, the Women’s World Cup seemed to drive a significant increase in the number of female punters betting on women’s soccer. Following a tumultuous build-up to their Fifa Women’s World Cup campaign dominated by a dispute with their own federation and head coach, Spain defied the odds by beating England’s Lionesses in last Sunday’s final to win the tournament for the first time.

But as Dr Ali Bowes - a lecturer in the sociology of women's sport at Nottingham Trent University - recently told BBC News , "sport is a microcosm of society". If there were any gripes Aussies had during the tournament, it was that the bulk of games remained behind a paywall on Optus. Still, with the country’s anti-siphoning scheme under review, it could be a thing of the past if the Australian government follows through with plans to ensure iconic women’s sporting events are more available to watch on FTA television. Players didn't like it either. Norway forward Ada Hegerberg said in a sarcastic post on social media external-link that she was "working on a little presentation to convince men".

Games

Spain are an excellent team. They quite evidently remained an excellent team even after they had been defeated by Japan. England are also an excellent team. They did something no other England team has done since 1966. Both of these statements can be true at the same time, because, unlike football, life is not a zero sum game.”

A content analysis of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand online news media coverage of the bid process for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: We did it This book examines the politics of the build-up to the tournament, including the bidding process, as well as how the tournament has been represented in the media, the governance structures of the tournament itself, and policy proposals designed to leave an enduring legacy for women and girls in sport. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is the first Women’s World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere and the first to be held with an expanded 32-team format. This book shows why the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup represents a unique opportunity to enhance our understanding of women’s football, gender-oriented sport development initiatives and strategies, national sport policy and programming, and the management of international sporting events. The 2023 Women’s World Cup saw soccer capture the imagination of the Australian and New Zealand public like never before.

Creative Play

In conjoined sporting, social, cultural, economic, political, and/or geographical terms, The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Politics, Representation, & Management aggregates an intriguing and multifaceted understanding of an event which occupies an increasingly prominent place within the global sporting landscape. As much a collective research project as an edited anthology (one or more of the editors are involved in the overwhelming majority of the chapters), The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup makes an important contribution to the sporting mega-event literature. It provides a vivid and interdisciplinary reading of the tournament’s location, structure, and representation which, albeit long overdue, finally brings the FIFA Women’s World Cup under the critical academic spotlight warranted by its manifold significance. Furthermore, without resorting to any form of uncritical romanticism, the book suggests how the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand co-hosted 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament’s more progressive aspects offer something of a counterpoint to the entrenched orthodoxies of major sporting events more generally. A must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the complexities, and transformative potentialities, of contemporary sport culture.'

La Roja captain Olga Carmona’s winning goal was the crowning moment on an epic few weeks in Australia and New Zealand, which saw the world’s best players deliver a compelling tournament defined by major upsets, nail-biting games and huge public interest. What kind of upside-down world are we in? On the biggest stage, where you should be celebrating, Jenni [Hermoso] has to be physically assaulted by this guy." The shirt saga and support for players Fans resorted to makeshift versions of Earps' shirt The fact that the total attendance was up should come as no surprise given that this year’s Women’s World Cup was the first to be expanded from 24 to 32 teams, meaning there were an additional 12 matches. Obviously, there was no point at all in Spain winning the World Cup and England would have been far better at winning, had they actually won. But, the thing I have always found hard about English football is that English journalists are such poor losers. The minute an England team doesn’t win the World Cup, all of the superlatives which were heaped upon them in the early stages of the competition are rescinded and they become virtual pariahs. Let’s make an exception this time. In the end, fans took matters in to their own hands, getting the fabric pens out and fashioning their own versions.That aggregate attendance figure soared past the previous best set in 2015, when 1,353,506 spectators watched the games in Canada. The next edition four years later in France was attended by 1,131,312 supporters.

Gender, branding, and the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand As One 2023 social media strategy: Winning the Women’s World Cup The precarious labour of women footballers: A shadow in the light of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World CupThere were similarly solid turnouts in New Zealand, where more than 700,000 fans attended 29 matches. According to sports marketing agency Redtorch, England were the most engaged with team across all channels, netting 27.4 million engagements. This put the Lionesses comfortably ahead of Australia (17.6 million), Colombia (10.9 million), Sweden (8.2 million) and the US (7.9 million), who completed the top five. The Matildas led the way on follower growth, adding an extra 768,024 fans. Spain's tournament build-up was marked by unrest in the camp and player revolts but, despite a deserved maiden World Cup win, further negative attention came the nation's way because of the actions of the man at the top of their federation. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and football development in Oceania: Beyond Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand With Spain returning home as champions, SportsPro rounds up some of the headline numbers that have emerged both during and since the Women’s World Cup.