The World Cup in Australia and New Zealand draws the rise of women's football: 32 teams and a planetary showcase

Women's football, growing exponentially, reaches a peak on the occasion of the World Cup that starts tomorrow with the match between New Zealand and Norway (9:00 am), in Auckland. For the first time, 32 teams, more than 700 players and one million tickets sold. The expectation that it arouses in the antipodes, as it is held in Australia and New Zealand, exceeds any of the previous events. Of all the participants, the best is a Spaniard, Alexia Putellas who, although coming off a serious injury, is a double winner of the Ballon d'Or and is at the forefront of a Spain that is healing internal injuries and seeking to demonstrate the unstoppable progression of women's football. In our country.

This ninth edition of the World Cup will have, for the first time, two countries as hosts that, curiously, are part of different confederations. Australia belongs to Asia and New Zealand to Oceania.. The growth to 32 teams also shows the leap in women's football. In the first two World Cups, held in China (1991) and Sweden (1995), 12 teams competed. In the next four, which took place in the United States (1999 and 2003), China (2007) and Germany (2011), 16 participated, and in the two most recent there were 24: Canada (2015) and France (2019).

The tournament also grows in follow-up. As reported by FIFA, for the match between Australia and Ireland the “no tickets” sign has been hung. More than 80,000 seats have been sold. The excess demand for this match forced FIFA to have to change the venue. The initial idea was that it would take place at the Sydney Football Stadium, but it will finally be held at Stadium Australia, with a capacity for 83,500 spectators.

Ticketing

And it is that, as Gianni Infantino announced a little over a month ago, 1,032,844 seats had been sold. A figure that exceeds that registered in the last edition, in France 2019, which by now had sold some 750,000.

Although the numbers so far are good, a few days ago FIFA announced that it will give away 20,000 tickets for matches held in New Zealand, due to concerns about slow sales in that country, unlike in Australia.. Sarai Bareman, general director of women's football at the institution, stated that in this territory it is more difficult to attract spectators to the stadiums. That is why some of the sponsors, such as Xero, offer 5,000 courtesy tickets for the matches in the four host cities.

Another piece of information that reveals the boom that women's football is experiencing is the number of countries that will broadcast the event. Four years ago, the World Cup was broadcast in 135 countries; this year they will do it in 189. In addition, FIFA expects the audience to be around 2,000 million viewers.. A figure that would practically double the 1,089 million people who watched the tournament played in France for at least an hour.

The opponent to beat

The strongest contender for the title is the United States. She has been crowned world champion four times (1991, 1999, 2015 and 2019), and considering that only eight have been held, it is a 50% success rate.. Awesome.

In addition, the Americans can make history in this competition by becoming the first team, of all the World Cups, to manage to lift three consecutive trophies.. He has participated in all the editions, and if you think that he has been below third place in any of them, you are wrong. Vlatko Andonovski's girls have achieved, in addition to the titles, three bronzes and one silver.

These excellent results make the United States the great rival to beat, although not the only one. Another team with many possibilities is England. In the last two editions, the English have been third and fourth, respectively. Maybe this year will be yours. They have as a point in favor the achievement of two consecutive championships: the Eurocopa 2022 and the Finalissima 2023. But, despite these good results, the reality is that England arrives at this World Cup with two sensitive casualties: the captain Leah Williamson and the striker Beth Mead.

Spain debuts on Friday

Finally, there is Germany. It is not going through its best moment, since it has been a decade without winning any title. However, it occupies the second position in the FIFA ranking and exhibits a great list of winners, with eight Euro Cups and two World Cups.

Where is Spain? Well, Jorge Vilda's players, who are staying in Palmerston North, a city 59 kilometers from the furthest inhabited place in Madrid, do not start in a bad position. They occupy sixth place in the FIFA ranking and have among their ranks the best player in the world today, although Putellas has arrived with physical problems.

It is the third time that Spain participates in the World Cup. In the previous edition they fell in the round of 16, although of course, the rival was the United States. They also did not achieve a great position in Canada, in 2015, since they did not go beyond the group stage. The balance so far indicates that of the seven games played, Spain has won one, drawn two and lost four. Numbers that Vilda's players hope to improve in the World Cup, in which Spain makes its debut on Friday (9:30 am, Teledeporte), against Costa Rica. The matches against Zambia, on the 26th (9:30 a.m.) and Japan, on the 31st (9:00 a.m.), will close their first phase. From there, if you qualify, to dream of anything.