SPAINIt is worth pointing out that there are
still “unofficial”records to be beaten.The
final of the unofficial Women’s World Cup
in1971, for example, was watched by at
least110,000 spectators in the Azteca
Stadium in Mexico City.
Yet this was a huge moment for the
modern women’s game. Remarkably,
the new record
lasted less than a
month before it
was beaten again,
at the same
ground in the
same competition,
as 91,648 fans
witnessed the 5-1 demolition of
Wolfsburg in the home leg of the
semi-finals.
This is in stark contrast to the English
Women’s Super League. Following a
short-lived World Cup boom in 2019,
crowd figures have struggled to
re-establish themselves in a post-COVID
season. Four days before the Spanish
Clasicoat the Nou Camp, Manchester
United Women only attracted 20,241 for
their first-ever match in front of an Old
Trafford crowd, fewer than two women’s
games at the stadium a decade earlier
during the London 2012 Olympics. Such
were the disappointing crowd figures at
two previous matches played at the
60,260-capacity Emirates Stadium,
Arsenal Women only made10,000
tickets available for their Champions
League quarter-final against Wolfsburg,
drawing in only 5,018 supporters.
In contrast, Zubizarreta insists that
this loyalty to the women’s team is
embedded into
the club’s
philosophy.
“Right now, we“Right now, we are not a project
of women’s football, we are a
project of football”
Markel Zubizarreta,
Barcelona Femeni general managerSelfie...Barca star
Aitana Bonmati
takes a picture
with home fansare not a project of women’sfootball,
we are a project of football,” he explains.
“At a club like Barcelona, thismeans our
fan base is much bigger. There are a lot
of people coming to our matches, not
to see Barcelona’s women’s team but
to see good football.
“If there is a Barca fan that puts on
the television, they cannot recognise if
it is men or women playing, they know
it’s a Barca team. The style of play
comes from the style of training.”Into the semis...
Barca players
celebrate with
the supporters