Top 100 momentsNo. 84
A World Cup that filled winter
Australia and New Zealand host. Spain win. Crowds and television numbers make the women’s game look like a peak event, not a development tournament.
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is 32 teams, two countries, prime-time in Asia and a morning show in Europe. Stadiums fill. Spain beat England in the final. The U.S. go out early. The story is no longer only one nation’s dynasty.
FIFA’s own numbers, and the pictures from Melbourne and Sydney, are the argument to federations that still funded the women’s game like a charity. The product can be the product.
1991 was the birth. 1999 was the American spike. 2023 is the tournament that looked, globally, like a World Cup people would rearrange a day for.