New book gives huge insights and new knowledge about worldwide sporting events and women’s football

Bente Ovedie Skogvang
Inland Norway University

This is a book in the Routledge series ‘Women, Sport and Physical Activity’, which critically examines the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (FIFAWWC 2023) tournament, organised in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. As stated in the introduction of the book, women’s football is growing rapidly with more than 30 million players worldwide in 2018. At the same time the interest for football-playing girls and women is increasingly attracting more spectators on the stands, more fans, and more interest from media and sponsors. The FIFAWWC 2023 was the first in the Southern Hemisphere, the tournament was extended from 24 to 32 teams, and it was the first time this tournament was co-hosted.  The editors underline that the book aim to fill the knowledge gap in the following aspects:

• The role and accountability of FIFA and its actions concerning the FIFAWWC 2023 and future FIFAWWCs.
• The impacts on Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand as they frame it (such as through legacy planning) or as others frame it (such as the use of particular target groups and identities).
• The placement and representation of Indigenous communities. Building on Chapter Nine Marketing Māori and other scholarly work in this space, the tournament’s attempts to engage with Indigenous communities across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
• The influence this tournament has on the broader debates connected to women and sport, international sporting events, and football.

The collection of 12 chapters provides the readers with critical perspectives on several aspects through addressing the following thematic parts:

1. Contextualising the FIFAWWC 2023
2. The politics of the FIFAWWC 2023 bidding
3. The Australia/Aotearoa New Zealand bid marketing, media and representation
4. Policy and management in the lead-up to the FIFAWWC 2023

In the first thematic part the authors explore the history of Women’s World Cup in connection to social, political, and economic forces and relations at local, regional, and global levels. The neglect and discrimination against women’s football through decades both before and after the first official FIFAWWC in 1991 is addressed. The governing bodies have made efforts through governance reforms and strategies to improve the cultures and conditions in women’s football. Nevertheless, the authors show how women inside national and international football still face inequalities, discrimination and labour exploitation in the contemporary women’s game. After a presentation of the host nations by the editors, chapter 1 is contextualising and chronicling the gender equality provisions in FIFA’s 2016 governance reforms. The chapter gives a crucial insight in the socio-political and institutional contexts in understanding FIFAWWC 2023.

The strategies and aims of FIFA were bridge-building between the Asian and Oceania regions and confederations, and the conclusion from the authors is that to overlook the confederations as diplomatic entities might spell more of a divide than a bridge between the two entities.

Chapter 2 explore some of the labour issues which women face with precarious conditions, wage inequalities, and discrimination both nationally and internationally. Women in football experience discrimination by race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, and social class, and the authors conclude that FIFA should take stronger steps to fulfil its gender equality commitments. Chapter 3 is tracing FIFA’s “flagship women’s competition” and its use of legacy from 1991 to 2023. The authors discuss among other things the powerful impact of the changing FIFA presidents, the role of “legacy”, and how the importance of legacy will continue in future tournaments.

The three chapters in the second thematic part examine the bidding process of the FIFAWWC 2023. In chapter 4 the authors argue that FIFA fully controlled the bidding process with bidding criteria, evaluation guidelines and outcomes in line with FIFA’s vision. Chapter 5 critically examines the conjunctural politics and commercialisation of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the “As One 2023” bid. The authors conclude that FIFA’s aims for future development of women’s football also helped the governing body to move forward. In chapter 6 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and sports diplomacy at the confederation level is discussed. The strategies and aims of FIFA were bridge-building between the Asian and Oceania regions and confederations, and the conclusion from the authors is that to overlook the confederations as diplomatic entities might spell more of a divide than a bridge between the two entities.

The three chapters in part 3 examine issues in media representation of women’s football in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and in the Asia-Pacific area. In chapter 7, ‘Gender, branding, and the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand As One 2023 social media strategy’, the authors discuss the social media strategy and argue that Twitter was used as a powerful media inn line with FIFA’s current political, economic, and social priorities. The authors of chapter 8 have carried out a content analysis of the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand online news media coverage of the bidding process for the FIFAWWC 2023. The conclusion is that the news media in both countries reflects postfeminist neoliberal discourses and ideals about opportunity, legacy, and commercial benefits of the tournament, while neglecting the historical structures, forces and ideologies producing such iniquitous gender relations in women’s sport in the first place. The question “we did it” for whom? is asked by the authors because the approach dismisses the experiences of working-class women, queer women, disabled women, and women of colour.

The marketing and branding of Indigeneity in the FIFAWWC 2023 is addressed in chapter 9 with the subtitle ‘Marketing Māori’. The authors explore the intersections between FIFA’s priorities around inclusivity with the current socio-political and cultural climate of Aotearoa and New Zealand football. The authors state that to use Indigenous names and symbolism in sport events can lead to legacies of change and inclusion. But it will take more than adding a few names to sites and stadia and starting each greeting with a kia ora for Māori to think that they can ‘be’ football in Aotearoa.

In the fourth and final thematic section, policy and management in the lead-up to the FIFAWWC 2023 is discussed. Chapter 10 offers an analysis of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leverage strategies for the Women’s Cricket, Rugby, and Football World Cups. The country hosted three of the largest international women’s sporting events in 2022-2023; Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, Rugby World Cup 2022, and FIFAWWC 2023. The authors caution against presuming that improvements and progress will be made for women’s sport development, because these tournaments may do little in terms of addressing gendered organisational cultures, challenging the invisible norms that marginalise females in leadership and governance, or meeting the actual motivations and interests of women and girls.

In chapter 11 with the subheading ‘A Decade of Green and Gold’, the authors discuss the FIFAWWC 2023 and Australia’s sporting ambitions. In this chapter the mobilisation of sport in the interest of nation branding is questioned because it shapes national priorities and influences external and internal expectations, and have impacts on the distribution of resources. The authors state that ‘it is critical to explore the potential dangers of gender equality in sport, as a discourse and subject of policy, becoming entangled in this capitalistic process and to analyse how this nexus utilises gender empowerment in the pursuit of enhancing international reputation and economic participation rather than sporting equality itself’ (p. 202).

In chapter 12 the authors examine and understand the potential impacts of the FIFAWWC 2023 for football development in Oceania moving ‘beyond Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’. They conclude that by understanding how the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is working to harness the momentum of the FIFAWWC 2023 through its strategic plans and toolkits, we can engage in a more thorough and robust analysis of the tournament’s outcomes and legacies.

Altogether this book gives huge insights and new knowledge about worldwide sporting events, women in sport, and especially women’s football and women’s football in the Southern Hemisphere. The contributions offer a critical perspective to the research field of women’s sport and physical activity. It is crucial to examine app aspects of women’s football, including FIFAWWC, with a critical lens to bring the sport further and to fill the knowledge gaps in this research area. Women’s football is less researched, and for decades huge scholarly focus has been on men’s football only. Therefore, it is an important task for future research to address and examine both the negative and the positive parts and aspects of the history and the development, which have occurred from the early beginnings until today when women can live from football and be professional or semi-professional in several countries. At the same time, girls and women have no access or limited opportunities in many countries to take part in football.

Copyright © Bente Ovedie Skogvang 2024