The Women’s World Cup is touching all of Australia – with even the last bastion of NRL media cottoning on to the challenges faced by young footballers in this country.
Mark Levy, one of the most established figures in the rugby league media market, has taken the government to task for the ongoing lack of a national football home in Australia, calling it a ‘national disgrace’.
“The Socceroos and the Matildas continue to unite us on the world stage, yet they don’t even have the necessary facilities to help them prepare for these global tournaments,” he wrote.
“The question needs to be asked of Football Australia and the federal government, why?”
The only issue, of course, is that the Matildas do have a national home: indeed, they opened a $100 million facility in Melbourne just three weeks ago.
The Matildas trained out of it before their pre-tournament warm-up clash with France, though they are based in Brisbane for the duration of the World Cup.
A New Zealand family of five purchased the tickets that took the sales total to 1.5 million for the Women’s World Cup on Monday.
Soccer’s world governing body says the tournament being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand is on track to be the best attended in the competition’s history.
FIFA said the 1,500,000th ticket went to Auckland woman Maria Strong, who bought tickets for her husband and three children to attend Italy’s Group G win over Argentina at Eden Park as part of a family celebration for her son’s 12th birthday.
In a statement, FIFA said the sales target had been surpassed within the first five days of the month-long tournament, setting the 2023 edition on course to surpass 2015 in Canada for the record attendance. More than 1.35 million people attended a 52-game tournament in Canada. The tournament has expanded to 32 teams this year.
The opening games set records for women’s soccer matches in both co-host countries. The crowd at New Zealand’s upset win over Norway last Thursday set a new mark of 42,137. Australia’s 1-0 over Ireland attracted 75,784 at Stadium Australia, which is also the venue for the final on August 20.
“We are seeing a surge in support for women’s football, not just in ticket sales, but also in broadcast viewership, fan festival participation and merchandise sales,” Football Australia chief executive James Johnson said.
Football Australia said the first 12 games had a combined attendance of 363,937 with the average of 30,326 per game surpassing the 21,756 for the first dozen at France 2019 and the historical Women’s World Cup average of 24,780.
The 1999 tournament in the United States holds the record for highest average match attendance, with a crowd average of 37,944 across 32 games.
With AAP
© AAP
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