FIFA Women's World Cup

[garyspain]

Anybody know if there will be programmes for this?

I assume the best we can hope for is an overall brochure and maybe one for the final.

[ndg1860]

It would have to be something done by FIFA for the Australian side at least. They halted producing programmes about a decade ago, stating that programmes were "only for anoraks" and that is a quote from the media and marketing manager of the Australian FA at the time. Last September there were two games to celebrate the centenary of the first internationals by both Australia and New Zealand when they played a match in Auckland and then in Brisbane. There was a programme for the NZ game only. Thus, there is all the chance that some of the New Zealand games may actually have a separate programme but not any of the Australian games unless FIFA organise something. All that said, I would not be surprised if we get something the same as what happened in Qatar.

[seandel1]

At a slight tangent, for our Irish members the libraries have a very nice free World Cup guide / activity book for kids. I say kids, but I know at least one adult who has squirrelled one away

[garyspain]

Just an update here. No tournament brochure produced and nothing available at games I attended in Australia and New Zealand.

Teamsheets were available to the media via a QR code. They were printed in very very limited numbers for Australia and Nigeria v Republic of Ireland. I'm not aware of any being printed for the Canada game and didn't see any.

I didn't attend any England games and didn't even try for teamsheets at any other games.

An "official guide" was available in the children's section of local newsagents in Australia. It does not have squad details and appears to have been printed months ago. It is a licenced product as opposed to an official one. Up to each individual whether to consider it a programme/brochure or not. It is available from some dealers.

Note as with other licenced products it was not available at any game or in any official store. However as with licenced products it was sold in certain retail outlets eg Cotton On stores had licenced T shirts and hoodies that were different to those in the official stores.

I'm not aware of a programme for the final. Can anybody confirm there wasn't for certain?

I'm pretty certain there were no real tickets. Those without a smartphone could visit a ticket resolution point and get an A4 printed page with a barcode to access the game. Hospitality tickets were electronic.

I haven't seen anything re souvenir tickets which were available after the Qatar tournament.

There were souvenir cups at the Australia v Republic of Ireland game. I've seen photos of cups for the final. Best guess is they were only done for group games involving the hosts and the final as per Qatar. I did attend Australia v Denmark Rof16 and didn't see any. Note I'm not aware of any for NZ and other Australia games but didn't pay much attention.

Sadly this seems to be the way things are going for major tournaments now particularly those hosted by FIFA.

[Dorking]

Sad that this is the way it's going at a lot of levels.

Personally I keep my 'print at home' A4 tickets for non-league matches -sometimes for a non league friendly where the teams are written on a whiteboard, it is the only physical 'evidence' of there having been the match in question

[Flaming Pie]

Gary, with regard to media coverage what was it like being over there for the competition? Did Australia and New Zealand hype it up as much? I can only speak for myself, and it’s great that the women’s game appears to be growing in popularity . But when you have got the likes of Richard Madeley and the rest on GMB and all the other stations pretending to be champions of the women’s game it all started to get tedious . Then you had some players old granny , or an old school chum telling the world we always knew so and so would win the World Cup one day it was time to switch off. When it came to the final itself , it was on TV at the same time as The World Athletics Championships and to me there was only one bulls—t free sport worth watching . By comparison to say The Ashes, which to me was fantastic to view this Summer, there far too much hype attached to the whole event. The pubs being allowed to open at 10am and all that nonsense . Perhaps the hype was needed , but it was bloody tedious. Then again, I’m subscribed to watch most of the televised football, but l tend to give a lot of the televised games a miss as well! Perhaps l’ve just become a boring old fart

[Sir Alf]

“Hype” in the key word, certainly in England

I enjoy watching England Women play, in fact I enjoy watching just about anybody who wears a shirt with the Three Lions. I was at Wembley for the Euro 2022 final and the Finalissima v Brazil. Also I’m going to Sunderland on a Friday night, over 100 miles away from where I live, to watch their next match v Scotland. But…

The BBC do women’s football a disservice, in my view, by hyping it up way beyond its potential market. They try to compare it with the mens game, which is ridiculous in my view. After all, in 2012 did they try to compare Jessica Ennis with Mo Farah?

Four examples come to mind, there are probably loads more

1. When Ellen White scored her 52nd goal the commentator, probably Jonathan Pearce acting under instructions, said something like “that puts her one behind Wayne Rooney”. No, no, no, its a different game

2. When England reached the final we were all told that this was the first time we’d reached a world final since 1966. What about the U17 and U20 men that won their World Cups in 2017

3. When it’s a men’s international break and the women play at stadiums like the Emirates or Anfield the BBC go overboard on the wonderful attendances. Great but they never mention how cheap the tickets are. I can’t remember what I paid for the women’s Euro 22 final but I do know it was massively cheaper than the mens final the previous year. Cheaper by several hundred £££

4. The BBC summarisers hyped up every half-decent shot or save into something they weren’t. Good but not everything was world-class

I was genuinely disappointed that England didn’t win. But I watched the final on ITV to stop me throwing something at the TV screen

This will mark me down as a MCP, I expect. Or as a woman said to my mate - what century are you in?

End of rant, mainly against the BBC of course

[garyspain]

I'm a longstanding fan of the women's game. My first International was v Wales in 1974 and it only happened because the football families in Limerick hosted the visiting players. So it is really great to see the game taking off.

There was huge hype in Australia. The Matildas were box office. Demand for tickets for our game was off the charts. Loads of ticketless fans which was great to see in one way but obviously felt for those who didn't get in. Plenty of media coverage but a major own goal with the games being on their equivalent of Sky and hence not available.

Even at other games local fans arrived in Australian colours. The Australia v Denmark game was really good. We flew home after that.

We went to New Zealand on August 1st after the hosts were out. It didn't feel as big a deal there. Crowds were very good in Auckland and Wellington but my game in Hamilton was poorly attended on a miserable wet night.

Tickets were cheap. My games cost £10-£15 and it was easy to get any game including the final apart from Australia v RoI last year. It did mean for games like Argentina v Sweden in Hamilton you could just decide not to go and not lose much. My daughters' tickets went to resale a couple of hours before kickoff. Had they been men's pricing we would have probably forced a decision earlier.

[Flaming Pie]

Sir Alf, great points you make. Thanks Gary for the info. I would never disparage the women’s game and if l had a daughter or grandaughter who were as successful as those players who appeared in The World Cup l would be chuffed. I was talking to a boxing fan from lreland and he was telling me that the main interest when it comes to boxing in lreland is Katie Taylor and her achievements. Each to their own and that , but women’s boxing doesn’t appeal to me at all. I suppose we have been conditioned ( wrongly) to think lots of sports are just the prerogative of men.

[HendonHotshots]

Not sure if this was available in print but Ireland produced a fantastic 100 page media guide for the women’s World Cup

https://www.fai.ie/sites/default/files/atoms/files/WNT%20FWWC%20Media%20Guide.pdf

For The Lionesses there is the free Luonesses guide available from the FSA

https://thefsa.org.uk/product/free-lionesses-world-cup-2023-tournament-guide/

[Seat151]

Just wanted to add that there was nothing for the 5 games played here in Perth.
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Millwall collector in Perth Australia