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FBL-WC-2019-WOMEN
Women’s World Cup kicks off with interest at a new high
PARIS, June 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The women’s World Cup kicks off on Friday
amid unprecedented attention as hosts France take on South Korea in Paris.
“It’s going to be a remarkable World Cup. The level of competition four
years on from the last one has exponentially increased,” said Jill Ellis,
coach of the US team, the reigning champions.
“Different teams are now rising and it’s going to be a very open World Cup
and we’re excited to go out there and attack it.”
Interest from the public is high with both semi-finals and the final, all
to be played at the 69,000-capacity Groupama Stadium in Lyon, sold out as
well as the opening game at the Parc des Princes. The cheapest group game
tickets are just nine euros ($10).
The United States are the queens of the game after winning the World Cup
three times and the Olympics four times and that experience is clearly
visible in their current lineup.
At the end of May, FIFA calculated that the US had collected 1,893 caps
between them and included eight players with at least 100 international
appearances. Among them Carli Lloyd has 274 caps, Alex Morgan 163 and Becky
Sauerbrunn 158.
For France, the key members of the Lyon team that has won four straight
Champions League titles, Sarah Bouhaddi, Wendie Renard, Amel Majri, Amandine
Henry and Eugenie Le Sommer, are fast becoming French celebrities.
Germany, who can boast another Lyon star in Dzsenifer Marozsan, have won
two World Cups and eight European Championships. Japan and Norway have both
won the World Cup once.
However the power of the Americans and Germans is set to be challenged now
that some of the other traditional football powers, who for years did not
take women’s football seriously, are catching up.
England and France, ranked third and fourth in the world, arrive with
genuine hopes of winning the title. Spain, the Netherlands and Italy are all
in the top 15, with the Dutch reigning European champions. – Competition
getting stronger –
The 24-team format means the group phase will eliminate only eight teams.
The top two nations in each of the six groups and the four best third-place
finishers will qualify.
That means the underdogs know that one victory could be enough to reach the
second round.
“Aside from USA, France and the Netherlands, teams like Australia, Canada,
Sweden and Norway are also playing very well,” German coach Martina Voss-
Tecklenburg told broadcaster ARD.
“It will be a very tight tournament, and I think there will be some upsets
in the group stage.”
“I think this World Cup is a tipping point for the women’s game where I
think it’s just going to go boom,” England manager Phil Neville said.
Yet, as they prepared to try to emulate the men’s national team and win the
World Cup, France’s women’s team received a reminder that they are still not
quite equal.
They had to move out of their rooms in the “chateau” on the grounds at
Clairefontaine, the French football federation’s luxurious training base,
when the men’s squad arrived last week to prepare for two Euro 2020
qualifiers.
There are other subtle differences.
When France hosted the men’s World Cup and Euros, the finals were held at
the 80,000-capacity Stade de France. A large proportion of the matches at
this summer are taking place in stadiums with a capacity of 25,000 or less.
“We did not always choose big grounds because we didn’t want any empty
stadiums,” Noel Le Graet, the president of the French Football Federation,
told AFP.
“We got the women’s World Cup in 2015 … At the beginning, possible host
cities were not exactly shoving each other out of the way to come forward.
“I was a bit scared about the Parc des Princes, but the opening match sold
out in five minutes.”
The enthusiastic demand for tickets has surprised the hosts.
“We didn’t see it coming,” said Erwan Le Prevost, head of the local
organising committee. – ‘Virtuous circle’ –
Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of Lyon, told AFP that “it was a gamble at
the time that we bid for the games.”
Aulas believes the improvement of the French team and the rise of fan
interest are linked.
“We are in a virtuous circle with an audience that will come and watch,” he
said.
In many countries, women’s football remains an afterthought, yet even in
the nations where women’s football is strongest, players feel attitudes are
not changing fast enough.
The US team, whose popularity in their homeland has been the financial
motor that has driven women’s football, arrive embroiled in a legal dispute
with their federation.
They want to be paid the same as the US men’s team, who remain also-rans
internationally.
Women’s Ballon D’Or winner Ada Hegerberg, who scored a hat trick for Lyon
in the Champions League final, will be absent from the World Cup. She is
boycotting the national team even though Norway pays women and men
internationals the same, because she believes that more needs to be done to
improve the way women footballers are treated.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0827 hrs