Jul 20, 2023

AFL

The Long Road to having a FIFA Women's World Cup

13 Comments

It was in 1930 that FIFA held its inaugural World Cup, and being 1930, it was of course a men’s only tournament.

The women didn’t have to wait long though for a tournament of their own though, just a mere 61 years.

This wasn’t to say women weren’t playing football; for example, the British Ladies' Football Club was formed in 1895.

Its patron was the war correspondent and adventurer Lady Florence Dixie, and its founder and its first captain was the delightfully named Nettie Honeyball.

While women’s football was being played, it wasn’t something that interested the governing body, FIFA.

To be fair, FIFA first struggled to fund the men’s tournament in the early decades.

Then, when huge money started gushing in under FIFA President João Havelange and his General Secretary Sepp Blatter, they were too busy managing the bribes and corruption to think about women’s football.

It was unfortunate that the lack of a Women’s World Cup prevented young girls from dreaming of being footballers and representing their country.

It also meant they couldn’t dream of growing up to be corrupt FIFA delegates. You can’t be what you can’t see.

FIFA’s disinterest in a female tournament was hardly surprising.

Sepp Blatter had, after all, once been the head of the World Society of Friends of Suspenders, an organisation dedicated to promoting the use of suspenders by women instead of pantyhose.

Yet others outside FIFA saw the great benefit in both women’s football and a Women’s World Cup.

In 1970, the Federation of Independent European Female Football (FIEFF), based in Turin, Italy, decided to ignore FIFA and host what is now described as an ‘unofficial’ World Cup.

Seven teams competed in Italy, with Denmark becoming champion, but the lads at FIFA were unmoved.

They made the usual assumptions, there wouldn’t be enough interest, which meant no sponsorship, no TV rights and therefore no bribes. No, thank you, ladies!

But women’s football continued to gain international momentum without FIFA, and even more unofficial tournaments were held.

It seemed FIFA wouldn’t be able to ignore this momentum, but they dug deep and did ignore it, consigning women’s football to amateurism for decades more.

That was until 1986 when the Norwegian delegate Ellen Wille spoke at the 45th FIFA Congress in Mexico.

She was the first ever woman to address a FIFA Congress. The audience was a little surprised. Not only was there a woman on stage, but she also seemed to be talking!

After some confusion, the delegates realised she was demanding they take a moment out from their vote rigging and start promoting women’s football and treating women players better.

When the shock wore off, the delegates decided they might have to do something finally, but giving the World Cup branding to women? That seemed a bit silly.

So did throwing too much support behind it. What if it wasn’t a success?

They asked themselves, what was the bare minimum FIFA could do to get these rather annoying and loud women to go away?

The answer was a Women’s Invitation Tournament in China in 1988. Twelve teams were invited, and it was set up in such a way that if it failed, FIFA could say, ‘hey, we tried,’ and bury the thing forever.

To FIFA’s surprise, it was a success, with Norway winning.  

While not fully convinced women should be playing football at all, FIFA did tick off on a Women’s World Cup, also to be played in China in 1991.

While this was the official, inaugural Women’s World Cup, FIFA didn’t yet call it that, they came up with a respectful name, ‘The World Championship for Women’s Football for the M&M’s Cup’.

To further show the seriousness FIFA was taking the tournament, they made the matches ten minutes shorter than men’s matches.

April Heinrichs, the captain of the U.S. team at the time, said FIFA “were afraid our ovaries were going to fall out if we played 90.”

By the next tournament, matches would be played for the full 90 minutes and to my knowledge, not a single ovary has fallen out in that time; hopefully, this remains true for this year’s tournament.

FIFA was now on board with the Women’s World Cup, but that didn’t mean they took it as seriously as the men’s version, using it more as a plaything to test concepts.

For example, the 1995 version had time-outs.

In 2004, now FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced the best way to promote women’s football was to have them wear ‘more feminine clothes.’

“Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball,” Blatter said, “They could, for example, have tighter shorts.”

Yet Blatter wasn’t all bad; in the distant past of 2007, he let the Women’s World Cup have prize money for the first time.

That prizemoney has now grown to $150 million for the 2023 tournament, up from $30 million at the 2019 tournament, so things are now travelling in the right direction, although the men’s prizemoney is still $300 million more.

Today, the Women’s World Cup is now a commercial and rating juggernaut, and women can look ahead to a future where women can play football at the highest level.

My greatest hope though, after this long road, is one day we will even have a female FIFA President indicted on bribery charges. Then we’ll have true equality.

You can help support me in producing this ridiculous nonsense I churn out on a regular basis. Find out more here: https://titusoreily.com/support-titus

 This week’s Sports Bizarre episode is The Footballer Who Wasn’t, available wherever you get your podcasts.

 

COMMENTS

Simon Cox

Jul 20, 2023

The English Football Association actively suppressed women's football for 70 years, from 1921-1992
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_football_in_England#Banning,_decline,_and_reappearance

Simon Woods

Jul 20, 2023

Titus, you could save yourself a lot of time for your next column, by getting ChatGPT to write exactly the same article about women's cycling. Only the names and dates need to be changed.

There has been massive historical resistance to women cycling, based on such sound evidence as the risk of them developing 'Bicycle Face', goitre and appendicitis as well as posing a threat to morality due to the shape of the saddle. Tandem riding was reluctantly condoned because a man was in charge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycling_and_feminism

Finally, the women's version of the TDF kicks off next week, but of course in a truncated form because of course clearly women would not be able to handle a longer event because of that ovary dropping out problem. At least it has progressed from the one day token event that preceded it.

As for television audiences - it has proved hard to build them for events which didn't exist.

DAZ

Jul 20, 2023

Can't we just have one sport that's just for the lads?

saint peter

Jul 20, 2023

We do DAZ. It called the mens cricket or the mens World Cup or the AFL or Hockey championship. Its a good call but it a shame about the standard. Hopefully the mens teams can learn to improve. As they only about 100 years to perfect it.

Boys will be lads!

Jul 20, 2023

Daz, you could always play professional standard pocket billiards.... definitely not one for the ladies!

Wjg

Jul 20, 2023

Some good news.
The new State Football Centre has just opened in Perth and international teams have started training there for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

HOTPIES

Jul 20, 2023

To be honest, I struggle to recognise a sport that lacks one or preferably multiple ‘Daicos’ participants. But I am looking forward to this spectacle nonetheless. Go Matildas !

Lads

Jul 21, 2023

DAZ, there is no women's Penis Puppetry.

TAKING ELSTERNWICK BY STORM

Jul 21, 2023

***It was unfortunate that the lack of a Women’s World Cup...meant...young girls...couldn't dream of growing up to be corrupt FIFA delegates.***

Starting off small is not a bad thing. But what they should really be aiming for is to become corrupt International Olympic Committee Executive Members. Now THAT'S where the real money is.

Geoff Maidens

Jul 21, 2023

Brilliant article - although I'm uncomfortable with the word 'disinterest'. Not sure that's the right context.

Across the Face

Jul 21, 2023

GEOFF MAIDENS:

Agree about the misuse of "disinterest". But our man's been down this road a few times before, and for him it continues to be a dead end.

TAKING ELSTERNWIBK...:

The longstanding half-joke at the IOC's HQ in Switzerland was that, if you wanted to get paid time off for a not-very-serious injury, an easy way to incur it would be to leap from a very high pile of cash received as bribes and kickbacks onto a lower pile of cash received as bribes and kickbacks.

Steve

Jul 22, 2023

Love the comments about bribery. Doesn’t the afl approve hush money to silence alleged sexual assault victims? Or the Hawthorn racism scandal where shock horror, everyone involved is now innocent.
Fifa may well be corrupt but blaster and a few of his colleagues were sacked because of their stance.
This will never happen it’s your AFL ,it’s the boys club of Melbourne

MG

Aug 03, 2023

BOYS WILL BE LADS! Dont you oppress me!.. from now I want to be called Loretta.. and have babies.... wont stop me from pocket billiards though.. cheers MG (he/she, them/those, if you leave me/can I come too, have my cake/eat it too)