Popularity of Women's Soccer in Europe
In recent years, women's soccer has captivated people all over the world and as a result it has grown in terms of popularity and participation everywhere, especially in Europe. More and more people are beginning to realize the significance of female sports and what a positive impact it has on girls all over the world. As a result, more is being done in order to give these female athletes the recognition they deserve. In the following blog, I will be touching on just how popular women's soccer has become in Europe and some of the factors that have contributed to this.
In 2022, FC Barcelona's women's team announced that they were going to move their women's Champions League quarter-final match to the iconic Camp Nou stadium. The whole point of moving it to Europe's largest stadium was the hope that they would be able to sell out this game which in terms would mean breaking the world record for attendance at a women's sporting event. On March 30, this game took place and had an attendance of 91, 533 according to FIFA.com, which meant that game now held the title of a world record until the following month where that record was broken again by an FC Barcelona women's game. After that took place, in the summer for the UEFA Women's Euro in England, over half a million people attended the thirty-one games that were played, which doubled the previous record according to Forbes.com. All of this began a momentum for women's soccer that kept a snowball effect going into 2023 when the FIFA Women's World Cup was played.
For the championship match for the 2023 Women's World Cup there was two European nations that ended up playing each other, England and Spain. Ultimately Spain ended up defeating England 1-0, yet in the end, this match continued to help the population of women's soccer in Europe continue to snowball. In an article by nytimes.com they interviewed a little girl named Ona Sánchez who had said it was her first time ever watching the World Cup and just how much happiness it brought her watching her country win it all. Something like that can then cause more people to also follow their favorite players from their country's team to following the professional teams they're on, which again is a win all around as that is now bringing in more viewers, let alone fans for women's soccer.
There are so many different reasons why women's soccer in Europe will continue to keep growing and become even more popular. Every year we see more and more fans emerge and support these female players and their sport. As a result there have been more opportunities for these women, such as Sam Kerr being the first female on the cover of EA FIFA 23, with European women's clubs now being added to the game as well. This in return will only have a positive effect on women's soccer in Europe and continue to break barriers that never even seemed possible.
Sources
https://www.fifa.com/fifaplus/en/articles/camp-nou-and-the-world-record-attendance-for-a-womens-match
https://www.forbes.com/sites/asifburhan/2022/12/29/2022the-year-that-changed-womens-soccer-in-europe/?sh=8bf70a82e89d
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/report/_/gameId/633774#:~:text=Wolfsburg%20broke%20their%20own%20attendance,first%20leg%20at%20Camp%20Nou.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/world/europe/spain-womens-world-cup.html
The popularity of women's soccer in Europe is an amazing topic to talk about. From my experience, I noticed this from the past World Cup where Spain ultimately won the whole thing. The amount of fans and support I saw on social media after this was outstanding as you said. It was amazing for not only Spain but for the sport itself. Your comments on FC Barca being able to play in Camp Nu was something I didn't know but it is an amazing thing to do to push the popularity of the team. And as you said ti worked. Overall amazing work!
ReplyDeleteAs someone who did not know much about soccer before coming abroad, it truly is amazing to see how big of an impact the sport has. I was unaware that woman's soccer has grown so much in recent years. Hopefully other cities and countries take note of what Barcelona did and have the woman's teams play in the largest stadiums available. Your input on Camp Nu and the attendance numbers helped show just how impressive it is that the woman's team was able to sell this stadium out. Hopefully this impact can spread over to America soon! Great work!!
ReplyDeleteThe growth of women's soccer is very impressive and incredibly interesting to observe. I love how the success of these teams and individuals inspires younger generations, as exemplified by Ona Sanchez's story. I believe that cultivating a fan base among the younger generation will only serve to increase the sport's popularity and participation. Reading about the attendance record at Camp Nou really helped put these developments into perspective for me. Additionally, I like the inclusion of Sam Kerr on the cover of FIFA, as it serves as a great marketing tool.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the growth of women's soccer is very impressive and I like the comment about Sam Kerr on the cover of FIFA. I believe American sports have a long way to go to reach similar recognition to what women's soccer has received. For example, the WNBA has extremely low viewership.
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