4 years in the past, when it was introduced that the Girls’s World Cup could be expanded from 24 groups to 32, the thought was met with scepticism.
On the time, minnows Thailand had simply been thrashed 13-0 by four-time world champions USA, and plenty of have been involved the ladies’s sport was not prepared for a much bigger pool.
It appears, nevertheless, the critics have been unsuitable – as this 12 months’s Girls’s World Cup has proven.
With Olympic champions Canada, former world champions Germany and heavyweights Brazil all crashing out within the group stage and Jamaica, South Africa and Morocco making historical past by advancing to the knockout stage for the primary time, the 2023 event in Australia and New Zealand has been each aggressive and filled with upsets.
Jane Purdon, director of the Girls in Soccer organisation, informed Al Jazeera the growth to the 32-team format “has been a superb success”.
“The explanations are that many federations have elevated their strategic help to ladies’s soccer. As well as, elite leagues are increasing and rising, offering skilled coaching and enjoying environments week in, week out for the perfect gamers on this planet,” mentioned Purdon, creator of The Homecoming: The Lionesses and Past.
The outcomes haven’t solely silenced the sceptics but in addition bucked the rankings by the world governing physique FIFA, that are usually dominated by the USA and groups from Europe.
In accordance with Lisa Neirotti, affiliate professor and director on the Sports activities Administration Packages at George Washington College, the accuracy of the rankings might be skewed as a result of a few of the low-ranked groups don’t play as many video games as different groups.
A report (PDF) final month by the world gamers’ union Fifpro revealed that within the build-up to the Girls’s World Cup, European groups had performed twice as many matches as these in Asia and the Caribbean over the previous 10 months.
“Not all international locations have ladies’s skilled soccer, so it might be troublesome for scouts to judge gamers and groups precisely,” Neirotti mentioned.
“Quite the opposite, international locations with out ladies’s skilled soccer leagues have a possibility for the nationwide group gamers to play collectively extra. They’ve been enjoying collectively for for much longer versus groups the place gamers come collectively for under brief coaching camps and competitions.”
Overcoming adversity
Whereas some low-ranked international locations, comparable to 72-placed Morocco, benefitted from the elevated help from their federations, others excelled regardless of the off-field points they’re dealing with.
Jamaica needed to depend on a fundraising marketing campaign organized by the mom of certainly one of their gamers to cowl the group’s journey prices whereas Nigerian gamers have been in a pay dispute with their federation within the lead-up to the event.
“Some federations deserve no credit score for his or her groups’ success. FIFA ought to set minimal standards for nationwide federations’ help of their ladies’s groups and implement them,” Purdon mentioned.
“Federations ought to make sure that gamers have the absolute best likelihood for these large tournaments, and this contains ensuring that they’re ready mentally with out the distraction of disputes with the federation.”
The Jamaican group, nicknamed the Reggae Girlz, completed second of their group earlier than dropping to Colombia within the final 16 whereas Nigeria suffered a heartbreaking defeat on penalties to England after a fantastic efficiency in regulation time.
South Africa additionally got here second of their group, which included Italy, earlier than they misplaced to the mighty Netherlands within the final 16 whereas Morocco’s dream run has been one of many highlights of the event.
The Atlas Lionesses made it to the knockouts of their maiden look, bouncing again from a gap sport 6-0 hammering by Germany to beat each South Korea and Colombia and end second of their group earlier than dropping to France within the spherical of 16.
The group’s thrilling performances are seen because of funding and the formation of two skilled leagues three years in the past as a part of a broader plan to spice up the standing of girls’s soccer in Morocco.
“African groups have improved their grassroots growth programmes, participant pathways and training high quality, ensuing within the emergence of proficient gamers who can compete on the highest stage,” mentioned Lungile Matsuma, a multimedia journalist from South Africa. “Additionally, the fervour for soccer in Africa, mixed with a powerful sense of nationwide pleasure, typically drives groups to excel when representing their international locations at main tournaments.”
Wanting forward, Neirotti mentioned FIFA must push associations to make sure equal funding for each males’s and girls’s soccer sooner or later.
“With none private and non-private encouragement from FIFA management, soccer associations will attempt to reserve funds for themselves and different priorities they could deem necessary versus investing totally in ladies’s sport,” she added.
“What’s necessary for this event is that these undiscovered groups have superior and proven to the world that girls globally are aggressive and have wonderful enjoying abilities worthy of everybody’s consideration.”
