2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by women's national teams and organised by FIFA. The tournament, which took place from 20 July to 20 August 2023, was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. It was the first FIFA Women's World Cup with more than one host nation, as well as the first World Cup to be held across multiple confederations, as Australia is in the Asian confederation, while New Zealand is in the Oceanian confederation. It was also the first Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.
This tournament was the first to feature an expanded format of 32 teams from the previous 24, replicating the format used for the men's World Cup from 1998 to 2022. The opening match was won by co-host New Zealand, beating Norway at Eden Park in Auckland on 20 July 2023 and achieving their first Women's World Cup victory.
Spain were crowned champions after defeating reigning European champions England 1–0 in the final. It was the first time a European nation had won the Women's World Cup since 2007 and Spain's first title, although their victory was marred by the Rubiales affair. Spain became the second nation to win both the women's and men's World Cup since Germany in the 2003 edition. In addition, they became the first nation to concurrently hold the FIFA women's U-17, U-20, and senior World Cups. Sweden would claim their fourth bronze medal at the Women's World Cup while co-host Australia achieved their best placing yet, finishing fourth. Japanese player Hinata Miyazawa won the Golden Boot scoring five goals throughout the tournament. Spanish player Aitana Bonmatí was voted the tournament's best player, winning the Golden Ball, whilst Bonmatí's teammate Salma Paralluelo was awarded the Young Player Award. England goalkeeper Mary Earps won the Golden Glove, awarded to the best-performing goalkeeper of the tournament.
Of the eight teams making their first appearance, Morocco were the only one to advance to the round of 16 (where they lost to France). The United States were the two-time defending champions, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Sweden, the first time the team had not made the semi-finals at the tournament, and the first time the defending champions failed to progress to the quarter-finals.
Australia's team, nicknamed the Matildas, performed better than expected, and the event saw many Australians unite to support them. The Matildas, who beat France to make the semi-finals for the first time, saw record numbers of fans watching their games, their 3–1 loss to England becoming the most watched television broadcast in Australian history, with an average viewership of 7.13 million and a peak viewership of 11.15 million viewers.
The hosting of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup by Australia and New Zealand was widely praised, and was the most attended edition of the competition ever held. The competition has been described by some as the best Women's World Cup in history.
Overview
The FIFA Women's World Cup is a professional association football (soccer) tournament contested by senior women's national football teams, organised by FIFA. The tournament, held every four years and one year after the men's World Cup, was first played in 1991 in China, and was expanded to 32 teams beginning with the 2023 edition. The tournament is contested with eight round-robin groups followed by a knockout round for 16 teams. The defending champions were the United States, who defeated the Netherlands 2–0 in the 2019 final. The event took place over a period of a month, from 20 July to 20 August, in Australia and New Zealand. This Women's World Cup was the first co-hosted tournament, and also the first senior World Cup to be held across multiple confederations. In addition, it was the first senior tournament to be held in Oceania, the first Women's World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere, and the third to be held in the Asia-Pacific region.
Schedule
The match schedule was announced by FIFA on 1 December 2021, with kick-off times confirmed on 24 October 2022, two days after the final draw.
The opening match of the tournament, between co-host New Zealand and Norway, was played on 20 July 2023 at Eden Park. The inaugural match played in Australia, was between Australia playing against the Republic of Ireland on the same day at Stadium Australia, after a venue change due to strong ticketing demand.
Prize money
The total prize pool was US$110 million, $80 million greater than the prize pool of the previous tournament.
At previous tournaments, FIFA paid total prize money to the national associations, but for the 2023 Women's World Cup it was set to award prize payments directly to players as well as the associations. This came as a result of reports in the women's game that a number of national associations were withholding competition prize money from players and/or not paying them at all. In March 2023, global player union FIFPRO sent a letter signed by players from around the world to FIFA, challenging FIFA to make prize money in the men's and women's tournaments equal and to ensure at least 30% of prize money in the women's tournament made it to the players. While FIFA did not match the prize money of the men's tournament, it did significantly increase it, with more than half set to be paid to players directly.
Just before the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that the player payments would still be paid to the associations, and that FIFA planned to audit the associations to make sure the money got to the players. Football administrator Lise Klaveness expressed concern over what she felt sounded like reneging on the promise, both for the players and for FIFA's credibility. During the tournament, Infantino admitted that FIFA had simply made recommendations to associations on how much to pay players, and they could not reasonably check.
Host selection
Bidding began for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on 19 February 2019. Member associations interested in hosting the tournament had to submit a declaration of interest by 15 March, and provide the completed bidding registration by 16 April. However, FIFA revised the bidding timeline as the tournament expanded to 32 teams on 31 July. Other member associations interested in hosting the tournament then had until 16 August to submit a declaration of interest, while the completed bidding registration of new member associations and re-confirmation of prior bidders was due by 2 September.
Nine countries initially indicated interest in hosting the events: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, South Korea (with interest in a joint bid with North Korea), New Zealand and South Africa. Belgium expressed interest in hosting the tournament following the new deadline but later dropped out, as did Bolivia, in September 2019. Australia and New Zealand later announced they would merge their bids in a joint submission. Brazil, Colombia, and Japan joined them in submitting their bid books to FIFA by 13 December. However, both Brazil and Japan later withdrew their bids in June 2020 before the final voting.
On 25 June 2020, Australia and New Zealand won the bid to host the Women's World Cup. The decision came after a vote by the FIFA Council, with the winning bid earning 22 votes, while Colombia earned 13. Neither country had previously hosted a senior FIFA tournament. This was the first Women's World Cup to be hosted in multiple countries, and only the second World Cup tournament to do so, following the 2002 FIFA World Cup, held in Japan and South Korea. It was also the first FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first senior FIFA tournament to be held in Oceania, and the first FIFA tournament to be hosted across multiple confederations (with Australia in the AFC and New Zealand in the OFC). Australia became the second association from the AFC to host the Women's World Cup, after China in both 1991 and 2007.
Format
In July 2019, Infantino proposed an expansion of the Women's World Cup from 24 to 32 teams, starting with the 2023 edition, and doubling the tournament's prize money. The proposal came following the success of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and the prior edition of the tournament in 2015, which after increasing from 16 to 24 teams set an attendance record for all FIFA competitions besides the men's FIFA World Cup. Expanding the tournament to allow eight additional participating teams gave more member associations a greater opportunity to qualify for the final tournament. This fostered the growing reach and professionalisation of the women's game.
On 31 July, the FIFA Council unanimously decided to expand the tournament to 32 teams, featuring eight groups of four.
The tournament opened with a group stage consisting of eight groups of four teams, with the top two teams progressing from each group to a knockout tournament featuring 16 teams. The number of games played overall increased from 52 to 64. The tournament replicated the format of the men's FIFA World Cup used between 1998 and 2022. For the first time since the 2002 FIFA World Cup, both qualified teams from each group were kept on the same side of the draw in the knockout stage, meaning they could potentially meet again in the semi-final. This was to minimise travel between Australia and New Zealand and to ensure both host nations remained in their own country up to the semi-finals should they qualify.
Venues
Australia and New Zealand proposed 13 possible venues across 12 host cities for the tournament in the bid book submitted to FIFA, suggesting a minimum of 10 stadiums be used—5 in each country. The original proposal of the joint bid would have seen the venues divided into three main travel hubs: South Hub, containing Perth, Adelaide, Launceston and Melbourne; East Hub, containing Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and Launceston; and New Zealand Hub, containing Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. The Sydney Football Stadium was the only new stadium, undergoing a major renovation during the bid period, replacing the old football stadium on the same site and opening on 28 August 2022.
The bid evaluation was released on 10 June 2020 by FIFA, which noted that the majority of the stadiums listed in the bid meet FIFA's hosting requirements with capacity, aside from Adelaide and Auckland, which did not meet the minimum requirements capacity wise for stages of the competition proposed for. Most stadiums featured in the bid were planned to have minor renovations with new floodlighting, pitch renovations, in addition to gender-neutral changing rooms in time for the tournament.
On 31 March 2021, FIFA announced the final host city and venue selections. Five cities and six stadiums were used in Australia, along with four cities and stadiums in New Zealand. From the proposed venues, Newcastle and Launceston were not selected in Australia and Christchurch was omitted in New Zealand. Eden Park in Auckland hosted the opening game, with Stadium Australia in Sydney hosting the final match. As a part of the branding, all cities used native names (Indigenous in Australia and Māori in New Zealand) alongside their English names in an effort to "reconcile and respect the original owners of the land". They were: Tarntanya (Adelaide), Meanjin (written as Meaanjin; Brisbane), Naarm (Melbourne), Boorloo (Perth), Gadigal (Eastern Sydney; for Sydney Football Stadium), Wangal (Western Sydney; for Stadium Australia), Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Ōtepoti (Dunedin), Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), and Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington).
Eden Park, Auckland hosted New Zealand's opening match; Stadium Australia, Sydney hosted Australia's opening match (both group stages). Lang Park, Brisbane, hosted the third-place match on 19 August; Stadium Australia hosted the final which was held on 20 August.
The World Cup forced many domestic Australian sporting teams to move matches from grounds under the FIFA lockout, particularly those in the National Rugby League.
Team base camps
Base camps were used by the 32 national squads to stay and train before and during the Women's World Cup tournament. FIFA announced the hotels and training sites for the 29 qualified participating nations on 11 December 2022, with the remaining 3 qualified teams selecting their base camps after the Play-off Tournament. FIFA later confirmed the last remaining three base camps for the play-off tournament winners on 21 March 2023. It was the first World Cup to have dedicated base camps for the 32 participating nations.
Teams
Qualification
FIFA's confederations organised their qualifications through continental championships, with the exception of UEFA which organised its own qualifying competition. Australia and New Zealand, as co-hosts, qualified automatically for the tournament, leaving the remaining 207 FIFA member associations eligible to enter qualification if they chose to do so. Australia competed at the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup, whilst New Zealand did not enter the OFC Women's Nations Cup the same year. The reigning Women's World Cup champions United States competed in qualification through the CONCACAF W Championship.
The Chadian and Pakistani football associations were suspended by FIFA, thus excluding them from entering qualifications. Rwanda, Sudan, DR Congo and São Tomé and Príncipe entered qualification but withdrew later. Kenya withdrew before the second round of qualifiers. North Korea and Turkmenistan withdrew from the Women's Asian Cup qualifiers due to safety concerns and travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Iraq withdrew after the AFC draw. Due to the uncertainty of women's sport after the Taliban takeover of the country, Afghanistan withdrew from qualification. Due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks in their squads, Women's Asian Cup hosts India withdrew from qualification. American Samoa withdrew due to continuing difficulties related to the pandemic. Russia were disqualified from competing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The allocation of slots for each confederation was confirmed by the FIFA Council on 25 December 2020. The slots for the two host nations were taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederations.
AFC (Asia): 6 slots (including co-hosts Australia)
CAF (Africa): 4 slots
CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 4 slots
CONMEBOL (South America): 3 slots
OFC (Oceania): 1 slot (including co-hosts New Zealand)
UEFA (Europe): 11 slots
Inter-confederation play-off tournament: 3 slots
A ten-team play-off tournament decided the final three spots at the Women's World Cup. The play-off slot allocation was as follows:
AFC (Asia): 2 slots
CAF (Africa): 2 slots
CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 2 slots
CONMEBOL (South America): 2 slots
OFC (Oceania): 1 slot
UEFA (Europe): 1 slot
Of the 32 nations qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, 20 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2019. Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia made their debuts at the FIFA Women's World Cup. This World Cup was the first ever FIFA tournament the Philippines played in. This was Panama, Portugal and Vietnam's first ever FIFA women's competition, having only taken part in various FIFA men's tournaments. Zambia made history as the first landlocked country in Africa to qualify for a World Cup for either sex. Morocco became the first-ever Arab country to qualify for the Women's World Cup, while the Republic of Ireland marked their first-ever debut at any senior women's tournament. Denmark made their first appearance in 16 years after missing three consecutive tournaments, their last appearance being in 2007. Costa Rica, Colombia and Switzerland returned to the tournament after missing the previous one in 2019. Italy qualified for two consecutive women's World Cups for the first time in their history, after three sporadic appearances in 1991, 1999 and 2019. Africa had four representatives for the first time in the competition's history.
Thailand, Cameroon, Chile, and Scotland, all of whom qualified for the 2019 Women's World Cup, did not qualify for the 2023 tournament. Iceland was the highest ranked team in the FIFA Women's World Rankings that failed to qualify, ranked 16th at the time. Zambia were the lowest ranked team to qualify, ranked 81st at the time.
The qualified teams, listed by region, with numbers in parentheses indicating final positions in the FIFA Women's World Ranking before the tournament were:
AFC (6)
(10) (co-hosts)
(14)
(11)
(46)
(17)
(32)
CAF (4)
(72)
(40)
(54)
(77)
CONCACAF (6)
(7)
(36)
(53)
(43)
(52)
(1)
CONMEBOL (3)
(28)
(8)
(25)
OFC (1)
(26) (co-hosts)
UEFA (12)
(13)
(4)
(5)
(2)
(16)
(9)
(12)
(21)
(22)
(6)
(3)
(20)
Squads
Each team had to provide to FIFA a preliminary squad of between 35 and 55 players, which FIFA did not publish. From the preliminary squad, each team had to name a final squad of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by 9 July 2023. Players in the final squad could be replaced by a player from the preliminary squad due to serious injury or illness up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.
Draw
The final draw took place at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, on 22 October 2022 at 19:30 NZDT (UTC+13), prior to the completion of qualification. The three winners of the inter-confederation play-off were not known at the time of the draw.
Retired American international and two-time Women's World Cup winner Carli Lloyd and CNN International sports presenter Amanda Davies conducted the draw. Each confederation had a retired international representing them as a draw assistant: Maia Jackman of New Zealand for the OFC and Julie Dolan of Australia for the AFC, alongside men's internationals Ian Wright of England for UEFA, Alexi Lalas of the United States for CONCACAF, Geremi of Cameroon for the CAF and 2002 World Cup winner Gilberto Silva of Brazil for CONMEBOL. Snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand and four-time swimming Olympic gold medalist Cate Campbell of Australia also assisted the draw.
For the draw, the 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on the FIFA Women's World Rankings of 13 October 2022. Pot one contained both co-hosts New Zealand and Australia (both automatically placed in positions A1 and B1, respectively) along with the best six teams. Pot two contained the next best eight teams, with the next best eight teams being allocated into the following pot (pot three). Pot four contained the lowest ranked teams, along with the placeholders for the three inter-confederation play-off winners. With the exception of UEFA, teams from the same confederation could not be drawn in the same group. However, since each inter-confederation play-off group contained multiple confederations, the placeholders were identified by the seeded teams in their respective play-off pathways to avoid any draw constraints. The draw started with pot one and ended with pot four, with the team selected being allocated to the first available group alphabetically. Pot 1 teams were automatically drawn to position 1 of each group, with the following positions drawn for the remaining pots. The pots for the draws are shown below.
Officiating
In January 2023, the FIFA Referees Committee announced the list of 33 referees, 55 assistant referees, and 19 video assistant referees (VAR) for the tournament. Of the 33 referees, FIFA included 2 each from Australia, Canada, South Korea, and the United States.
France's Stéphanie Frappart, Salima Mukansanga from Rwanda, and Yoshimi Yamashita from Japan, who became the first female referees to officiate the men's World Cup in 2022, were among those selected for the Women's World Cup. They were also joined by female assistant referees Neuza Back, Kathryn Nesbitt, and Karen Díaz Medina, who also participated at the men's tournament.
Heba Saadieh became the first Palestinian and Arab female referee to officiate at a World Cup of either gender. Firas Abu Hilal, secretary general of the Palestinian Football Association labelled Saadia as "a role model for Palestinian women who aspire to achieve success and greatness" and that she "has proven the ability of Palestinian women to excel in any field".
The VAR at the tournament had the spoken explanations broadcast in the stadium and on television as part of a year-long trial of the technique intended to give more transparency to often-controversial decisions. Other sports with video referees already used the measure, with FIFA also having implemented it at the 2022 FIFA Club World Cup and 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
On 18 August 2023, FIFA announced that American referee Tori Penso would adjudicate the final at Stadium Australia.
Ceremonies
Opening ceremonies
There were two opening ceremonies, one before each kick-off game in the two host nations on 20 July 2023. The first took place at Eden Park, Auckland, ahead of the opening game of the competition between New Zealand and Norway. The ceremonies both featured indigenous welcomes, fireworks, dancing and live music, before a moment of silence. A few hours before the opening ceremony, a shooting occurred in downtown Auckland during which three people, including the assailant, were killed. A moment of silence was held for the attack victims.
The Eden Park ceremony was noted to be very brief. It began with Māori and indigenous Australian artists; colour and culture representing the indigenous people featured in the ceremony, with a haka being performed as well. There was a dance with groups of dancers representing each nation competing at the tournament, and a montage of star players from all the participants. To close the ceremony, New Zealand singer Benee and Australian singer Mallrat performed the tournament's official song, "Do It Again".
At Stadium Australia, Sydney, Indigenous Australian artists performed.
Closing ceremonies
The tournament's closing ceremony took place at Stadium Australia, Sydney, on 20 August 2023, ahead of the Final. The ceremony featured a Welcome to Country, and a performance from Australian singer Tones and I.
There was also an extended pre-game ceremony featuring a Māori poi performance prior to the first semi-final at Eden Park, Auckland as it was the final match to be held in New Zealand.
Impact
The performance of the Australian national women's team (the Matildas) greatly increased public interest in the sport. In a statement following Australia's win in the quarter-finals, FIFA said "football is the only subject on everyone's lips" in the nation, having an "enormous impact" on the Australian public. In the lead-up to the tournament, more kits representing the Australian women's team were sold than for the national men's team (the Socceroos), for the first time. By the end of the tournament, the Matildas had become Australia's most valuable sporting team, with the worth of their brand increasing fivefold. Writing for The Guardian, former professional soccer player Craig Foster said: "We are not so much watching a national team compete, as a changing nation at play," citing the Matildas' performance for "overturn[ing] misconceptions of women's sport" and inspiring young women. As a direct result of the team's success, on 19 August 2023, the Australian government pledged $200 million to improve women's sporting facilities.
Australian TV broadcast viewership records were broken multiple times, with the country's match against France drawing about 4.17 million viewers on the Seven Network. Less than a week later, their match against England marked the most-watched broadcast in Australian history, averaging 7.13 million viewers, with a total of 11.15 million watching at one point. Live viewing sites were set up in cities around the country, with major stadiums being used to show the match in Sydney to cope with massive crowds. Both the Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, and other state leaders hinted at a public holiday if the Matildas were to win the World Cup.
The success of the tournament and the high viewership increased support for Australia and New Zealand to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Group stage
The group stage was played from 20 July to 3 August. Competing countries were divided into eight groups of four teams (groups A to H). Teams in each group played one another in a round-robin, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If the score was still level after extra time, the winners were determined by a penalty shoot-out.
Bracket
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third-place match
Final
Awards
The following World Cup awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: the Golden Boot (top scorer), Golden Ball (best overall player) and Golden Glove (best goalkeeper)
Additionally, FIFA.com shortlisted 10 goals for users to vote on as the tournament's best. The award was won by Colombia's Linda Caicedo for her goal in the group stage match against Germany.
Statistics
Goalscorers
Assists
Discipline
A player was automatically suspended for the next match for the following offences:
Receiving a red card (red card suspensions could be extended for serious offences)
Receiving two yellow cards in two matches; yellow cards expired after the completion of the quarter-finals (yellow card suspensions were not carried forward to any other future international matches)
The following suspensions were served during the tournament:
Marketing
Branding
The official emblem was jointly designed by Toronto-based studio Public Address and Los Angeles-based Works Creative Agency and unveiled on 28 October 2021 during a live show. The emblem featured a football encircled by 32 coloured squares, reflecting the expanded field of the tournament, and the natural terrains of the two host nations. The overall branding of the tournament featured designs reflecting the host nations' Indigenous peoples, created by Australian Kalkatungu artist Chern'ee Sutton and Māori artist Fiona Collis. Furthermore, the tournament's branding also incorporated the native names of all host cities. Alongside the emblem, the official slogan of the tournament, "Beyond Greatness", reflected FIFA's goal for the event to further expand the prominence of women's football, was also revealed. The names of the host cities in their native names (the local Australian Aboriginal languages and Māori in New Zealand) were used as part of the official branding.
Ticketing
Approximately 1.4 million tickets were sold or distributed by 19 July 2023, setting a new tournament record. Sluggish sales in New Zealand resulted in 20,000 free tickets being issued by sponsor Xero.
Merchandise
FIFA 23 featured the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup mode; the video game update was released on 27 June 2023, replicating the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup tournament and featuring the 32 qualified teams.
Broadcasting rights
The 2023 Women's World Cup was the first Women's World Cup to have its broadcasting rights sold as a standalone product rather than being packaged as a bonus of purchasing broadcasting rights for the Men's World Cup. FIFA stated that they saw "huge interest" in the separate bidding process and hoped for more regional partners to sign on. FIFA set an aim to reach a global audience of 2 billion, up from 1.12 billion at the previous edition of the tournament in France.
In October 2022, FIFA rejected multiple bids from various public and private broadcasters for what it described as significantly under-priced bids, urging broadcasters to bid more, saying it is what the women's game deserves. Some European broadcasters were concerned about the timezone difference affecting viewership figures, something that was not an issue with the France-hosted 2019 Women's World Cup, while Gianni Infantino threatened a media blackout for Europe's "big five" (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) if they did not offer more. The issue was resolved by the middle of June 2023, five weeks before the tournament, with all territories having deals. A deal between Japanese broadcaster NHK and FIFA was announced for the last uncovered major market a week before start of the tournament.
Sponsorship
Symbols
Mascot
The tournament's official mascot was unveiled on 19 October 2022. The mascot's name is Tazuni, which is a portmanteau of the Tasman Sea and "Unity". She is a little penguin (Eudyptula minor), endemic to New Zealand — FIFA incorrectly stated this penguin (E. minor) was endemic in Australia, where a closely related species (Eudyptula novaehollandiae) was described as new and distinct in 2016.
Match ball
On 24 January 2023, The word "Oceaunz" was unveiled as the official match ball for the tournament by Adidas.
Oceaunz's design was inspired by the unique natural landscapes of the two host nations, with visuals nodding to the vast mountains of New Zealand and Australia's connection with the Indian Ocean. Its name was a portmanteau based on the tournament's geographical location: Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand. Oceaunz featured the same connected ball technology as was seen in Qatar at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This provided precise ball data, which was made available to video assistant referees in real-time. It was previously used at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The match ball for the semi-finals, third place match, and final, the Oceaunz Final Pro, was revealed on 14 August 2023. It differed from the regular Oceaunz with an orange and gold coloration, reflecting the sunsets across the Sydney skyline, where the final was held.
Music
There were several official songs for the 2023 Women's World Cup. The official theme song, "Unity" by British DJ and music producer Kelly Lee Owens, was released on 28 October 2021 at the same time as the official emblem and slogan unveiling. An instrumental song with non-lyric vocals, it was played at half-time of every match. On 29 June 2023, the official song of the tournament, "Do It Again" by New Zealand singer Benee and Australian singer Mallrat, and its lyric video were released. In July 2023, the "official walk-out track" for the matches at the tournament was revealed to be "Bring It On" by Australian singer Tones and I, American rapper BIA and French-Senegalese singer-songwriter Diarra Sylla.
Other songs were independently produced for the tournament. The Nike player commercials "Let It Rip", depicting Megan Rapinoe as an All-American Hero, and "Like a Lioness", showcasing the England team, featured original songs. The latter (also called "Like a Lioness") was performed by Ms Banks, who had previously performed the theme song of the BBC's coverage of the 2019 Women's World Cup. A supergroup of female artists, Hope FC, also released "Call Me a Lioness", an anthemic song inspired by the England team (better known as the Lionesses). Hope FC featured British musicians including Melanie C, Self Esteem, Alex Greenwood of Sports Team, Olivia Dean, Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, and Shura (a former youth player herself).
Progressive actions
Indigenous flags and names
Football Australia CEO James Johnson indicated early on in planning that displaying flags representing Indigenous Australians and Indigenous New Zealanders was important to the host nations, and were discussing with FIFA whether this would be permitted at the same time as they and others were discussing captain's armbands. A captain's armband highlighting rights for Indigenous peoples was approved by FIFA in June 2023, with Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags (Australian Aboriginal Flag and Torres Strait Islander Flag), and New Zealand Māori flag (Tino Rangatiratanga) approved in July 2023. The extended wait for approval, especially after the armband decision had been announced, prompted Football Australia to seek further clarification. FIFA permitted the relevant flags to be flown alongside the national flags of Australia and New Zealand at all venues, giving them the same prominent status upon recommendation from Indigenous consultants and the governments of both host nations. Previously, the Australia team displaying the Aboriginal flag before matches had caused controversy.
In a sign of respect for the traditional custodians of the land, indigenous names for the host cities were used alongside the English names in branding.
Player advocacy
Climate action
On 13 July 2023, a group of 44 players, led by Denmark's Sofie Junge Pedersen and facilitated by Common Goal and Football for Future, announced that they would combat the carbon footprint of the teams' flights to Australia and New Zealand by donating to "climate resilience and carbon offsetting initiatives" organised by the World Wildlife Fund and DanChurchAid. Having donated to offset carbon emissions every time her team required flights for five years before the 2023 Women's World Cup, Junge Pedersen decided to reach out to her national and club teammates to do the same when faced with the long flights to Australia and New Zealand and the prominence of the tournament. Announcing the initiative, she hoped other players would join them in donating before and during the World Cup. She and Canada's Jessie Fleming discussed their hope to leave a positive environmental impact, acknowledging that the donations were short-term fixes for one issue, and their hope that there will be more climate-positive developments in football.
The group of players also petitioned football governing bodies to make carbon concerns a more important factor in the bidding processes for future tournaments. The initiative was considered the biggest player-led climate campaign in football, especially with the 44 players coming from a variety of nations and working together. The player donations were also matched by a third party.
Germany grassroots
Also facilitated by Common Goal, the Germany team announced before their opening match that they would donate 1% of their FIFA-guaranteed earnings from the tournament to Futbalo Girls and Girl Power, grassroots football programmes for young girls and non-binary people.
UN Women partnership
The day before the tournament began, UN Women announced that it had partnered with FIFA for the Women's World Cup "to celebrate the skills and achievements of the teams and players, to advance gender equality in football, and to prevent abuse and discrimination on and off the field." The initiative was also to highlight gender inequality issues during the tournament, with a joint campaign for everyone to recognise gender equality as a fundamental human right and to call for an end to violence against women and girls.
Issues
Controversies
There were various controversies relating to the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, with a main focus on players from a variety of teams going public about disputes with their respective football associations over various elements of professionalism, collective bargaining and development that they felt were not being met.
There were also controversies reacting to unpopular decisions made by FIFA: player welfare was a concern; the potential sponsorship of the tournament by Saudi Arabia was criticised and eventually dropped; the amount of money that the Big Five bid for broadcasting rights was criticised by FIFA, which in turn was lambasted for hypocrisy; and the inconsistency of the qualification system, in particular widespread condemnation by FIFPRO against confederations other than UEFA for failure to organise separate qualification campaigns unrelated to continental championships, was criticised.
After FIFA experienced criticism for specifically banning OneLove captain's armbands hours before the 2022 Men's World Cup, it spent months in discussion with the women's teams to communicate on the matter. Both rainbow and OneLove armbands were banned at the Women's World Cup, with a similar FIFA-designed armband instead made available by the organisation.
After Spain won the Women's World Cup, former RFEF President Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed a Spanish footballer, Jenni Hermoso, and breached the Article 13 of FIFA’s disciplinary code. Rubiales was banned by the FIFA Disciplinary Committee from engaging in any football-related activities at both national and international level for three years.
Auckland shootings
The opening match of the Women's World Cup took place in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 July; on the morning of the match, a gunman killed multiple people in the Auckland CBD. The fatal attack "cast a shadow" over the tournament. Football Australia said the shooting was not motivated by the World Cup. It took place near the hotel (M Social) where Norway, who played New Zealand in the opening match, were staying. The FIFA Fan Festival which was scheduled to take place nearby to the shooting location was cancelled, while the Italy team, who were also staying in a nearby hotel, could not leave to attend training due to police cordons. Moments of silence were observed on matchday one in respect to the victims of the shooting; security at and around Eden Park, the location of the opening match in Auckland, was heightened, with a statement saying this measure was taken for "reassurance". The players also wore black armbands and stadium flags were flown at half mast for both opening games. After New Zealand won the opening match in a surprise victory, Ali Riley paid tribute to the victims, saying that the team had "wanted to bring something amazing" in response to the shooting.
Another fatal shooting in the Auckland CBD, on the same street, occurred on 3 August; considered an unrelated and isolated incident, one person was killed and the perpetrator fled the scene after a fight broke out.
Pullman hotel fire
The New Zealand team's base camp was at the Pullman Auckland Hotel & Apartments. At 7:48pm on 22 July, the players and staff had to evacuate after fires broke out in multiple locations around the hotel due to a suspected arson attack; they were later allowed to return. Four people were treated for smoke inhalation, while Fire and Emergency New Zealand deemed the incident suspicious. New Zealand Football said that the fire was not connected to the shooting two days earlier. The security around the New Zealand team was increased, and a man was arrested on suspicion of burglary and arson.
References
External links
Australia-New Zealand 2023 bid website
Post match summary reports
2023–24 in New Zealand association football
2023 in New Zealand women's sport
FIFA
2023–24 in Australian women's soccer
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Australia–New Zealand sports relations
FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments
International women's association football competitions hosted by Australia
International women's association football competitions hosted by New Zealand
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Sports events affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Soccer
Soccer competitions in Australia
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