2023 fifa womens world cup

Auckland continues to prove that it's the sporting capital of the country. 

The city played a major role in this year's FIFA Women's World Cup - hosting nine matches. 

As a result, more than $87 million in GDP was injected into the region's economy, and over 175,000 guest nights were recorded in the city. 

Tataki Auckland Unlimited chief executive Nick Hill told Tim Dower that Auckland's hotels, restaurants, and tourist hot spots all bought in to the event. 

He said Auckland hosting the United States team made a big difference. 

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A new FIFA report has published some eye-opening stats into social media abuse.

Players at the football Women's World Cup were 29 percent more likely to receive online abuse than those at the men's tournament in 2022, according to new data.

One in five Women's World Cup players, a total of 152, received "targeted discriminatory, abusive or threatening messaging".

Former Football Fern Katie Duncan says it's 'saddening' that online abuse has gotten this extreme.

"It's good for it to be actually recorded from the players, it just gives them data so hopefully more can be done for the statistics- for the data to be lower." 

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The FIFA Women's World Cup has been an absolute feast of sport, culminating in Spain winning its first ever Women's World Cup, last night in Sydney.

It was a triumph for not just 'women's sport’ but sport in general.

Almost 2 million people attended 64 matches across nine host cities.

In Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised $200 million to improve sporting facilities and equipment specifically for women and girls, following the history-making performance of the Matildas.

How will the World Cup's success translate here in New Zealand?

Kerre Woodham was joined by Group Chief Executive of Sport New Zealand, Raelene Castle, to discuss what the impact may be.

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This week on the Highlight Reel James and Tyler get excited about the business end of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Plus they talk the classic office sweep!

They discuss people speeding through roadworks, and the possibility drivers may now face fines.

Of course, the pair talk the Official Cash Rate staying at 5.5% - and ask the listeners where they are cutting costs.

We find out what food James absolutely loves, which Tyler isn’t so sure about.

Plus, the boys remember the brilliant Aretha Franklin five years after her death.  

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The hosts on Fox Sport Australia were bamboozled by a question earlier this week. 

What’s the biggest winter sport in Australia? 

Is it Rugby League and the excellent entertainment of the NRL? Is it Aussie Rules? Or could it now, be football? 

Sadly, it goes without saying that it isn’t rugby, and I’d suggest that even when the Rugby World Cup kicks off, only so many Australians will even realise it’s on. 

At a time when all sorts of different things are vying for our attention, the Matildas’ semi-final in the FIFA World Cup obliterated TV ratings records. In Australia, it was the most-watched TV event in more than two decades. 

The key with football is the low barrier to entry. Grassroots participation isn’t totally dominated by one gender. You don’t need money to have a kick around with your friends. And you can explain the key rules in just a few sentences: Your team has to get the ball in the goal and stop the other team from getting it in yours. Only the goalies can use their hands. You can challenge the ball, but you can’t tackle people. 

That’s it. Sure, there’s an offside rule and passback restrictions but the basic rules are stunningly, beautifully simple. And even the way they’re enforced allows the game to flow. No one agonises over taking a throw-in from the exact mark. 

I don’t want to pick on rugby, but the contrasts are stark. I’ve watched, played, and loved rugby all of my life. But there are still infringements at the breakdown that leave me totally confused. Sometimes even the commentators don’t understand what’s happened. 

Football’s making a play at the moment into markets where historically it’s been a bit of a second-tier sport. At the same time as its recording record ratings in Australia, arguably the greatest footballer of all time has chosen to eschew the Saudi clubs to play in the United States. The average ticket to Lionel Messi’s first game for Inter Miami was selling only for $NZ 1200. The crowd included Serena Williams, LeBron James, the Beckham family, and Kim Kardashian. It was more than a football match – it was a cultural event. 

It’s fair enough to expect that when the World Cup hype has died down a bit, the buzz around football in Australia will die back a bit, too. 

Personally, I think it’s only a matter of time. It won’t happen overnight. Rugby, rugby league, and netball, will all still hold a special place in New Zealand. Basketball will continue to go from strength to strength. 

But fast-forward a few decades from now. I reckon football will be the most-played sport, the most-followed sport, the most popular sport in New Zealand, too. 

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For all the angst heading into the tournament, Kiwis have absolutely stepped up for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous for the tournament’s local organisers as kick-off neared. There wasn’t really much buzz. No real sense of occasion. And I worried that for what is a massive tournament in the context of global sport – arguably the biggest tournament ever hosted on New Zealand soil – we might show ourselves to be a bit miserable.

Don’t forget, just days before it officially began, FIFA’s boss Gianni Infantino paused a press conference, picked out the New Zealand media in attendance, and made a direct plea down the camera barrels for their audiences to get out and actually buy tickets. To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t feel that was necessary with the Australians.

The nature of the tournament meant that some of the pool games were the likeliest to have small audiences. It’s an exciting time because there are games almost every day, but if we’re honest, Zambia vs Costa Rica is unlikely in this part of the World to drum up the same kind of enthusiasm as it might elsewhere. Once you get to the knockout stages, the drama is greater, the games are closer, and it’s reasonable to expect the crowds are consistently big.

But get this. Of the twenty-four pool games played in New Zealand, the average crowd was more than 21,000 fans. More than half a million total fans. That’s fantastic. For the big games we’ve had record numbers in attendance. But even Zambia vs Costa Rica drew more than 8000 people to Waikato Stadium. And anyone who has attended a game will attest to how much fun it’s been. I live within walking distance of Eden Park. Fans are constantly making their way to the stadium with flags and face paint and jerseys for their respective countries. It feels properly global in a way that few events here ever do.

We should thank the Football Ferns for their part in this. That opening night was thrilling. Although they didn’t progress to the knock-out stages, they played a major role in igniting our collective excitement.

But it’s funny, I went back and looked at that Gianni Infantino press conference, where he effectively begged Kiwis to go out and buy football tickets.

He said one extra thing I hadn’t noticed at the time.  

“Do the right thing.”

He needn’t have. My experience at the FIFA World Cup is that fans haven’t attended out of charity. They haven’t attended out of a sense of duty to try and promote the women’s game. They’ve attended because it’s been really exciting, skillful, high-drama football. We might have left the ticket-buying to the last minute, but there’s no doubt New Zealanders have wanted to be there.

Now, we’re at the knockout stages. Some of the biggest names in World football are struggling or have already been knocked out. The tournament feels like it’s anyone’s.

And I for one, don’t want it to end.

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This week Kevin Milne joined Jack Tame to chat about U.S. football star, Trinity Rodman and how at 21 she’s made it to the top without her outrageous father, Dennis. 

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Could your FIFA office sweepstake be illegal?

The Department of Internal Affairs says prize money can't exceed $500 and sweepstake organisers shouldn't profit from entries.

Illegal gambling operations could land a person an up-to-$20,000 fine.

Regulatory Services Manager, John Sneyd says it's taken seriously.

"Office sweepstakes can be fun, but we've just got to make sure we keep it within the boundaries that keep it as a fun activity."

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The opening match of the FIFA World Cup went better than most kiwi football fans had even dared to hope.

Eden Park sold out, and the Football Ferns were not only competitive with Norway, they beat them 1-0 in an upset win.

NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB football reporter Bonnie Jansen was there, she spoke to D'Arcy Waldegrave on Sportstalk.

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There is a face of this World Cup. Burnt into my conscience. 

It’s the face of Hannah Wilkinson as she drank in the atmosphere before kick off against Norway.  

Standing with her teammates, waiting to walk on to her field of dreams.  

The stone-cold determination. The laser focus. The will. Watching her face sent chills through me. 

On the pitch, during the anthem, flanked by the women charged with lighting the touch paper for arguably the biggest sporting event in NZ’s history, every fibre of her being, every twitch and expression screamed intent.  

Hannah Wilkinson then sent the country into another stratosphere with her clinical finish of a textbook sweep down the field. A magical movement, personifying footballs oft used sobriquet, the beautiful game.  

Her determination, razor mindset and indefatigable will to win was laid out for all to see post-match in her interviews. 

Not arrogant, not that of baseless swagger, but the words of an athlete, determined and driven to stand up on the world sage and roar. 

If that goal, that team performance and that spirit doesn’t lift NZ, doesn’t trebuchet this sporting nation into the heart of this World Cup, nothing will. 

That’ll do.  

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How fricking good?

I watched the Football Ferns on my phone last night as I drove from Auckland to Rotorua. Streaming it from the passenger seat as we zipped along the Waikato expressway. I can’t think of a time when I’ve been more anxious for the 4G reception to hold out.

And talk about adding new meaning to ‘Are We There Yet’? Those last nine minutes of additional time felt like ninety.

We needed that result last night. In every respect. For the tournament. For the sport. And after the events of yesterday morning, for the country.  

From a football perspective, the thing I loved most was the hunger.

From the word go, the Football Ferns were rabid on defence. Every time a Norwegian midfielder found the ball at her feet and lifted her head to assess the options forward, a Football Ferns’ defender was rushing up, in her face, busying or badgering her for the ball and shutting down her options. It was the kind of relentless, exhaustive, extraordinary effort that makes the last twenty minutes of a game very difficult indeed.

The style of New Zealand international football has historically been defined by a heavy line of brutish defenders heaving the ball up the field and hoping for the best, but on attack, the Ferns were creative, technical, skilful and fluid. It was such a joy to watch.

For the second time in as many years, a women’s team has stepped up in a World Cup under the pressure and hopes of the nation. The Black Ferns last year, the Football Ferns now.

Isn’t it amazing how sport can lift us?

Two more pool games. And having recorded our first ever win at a Football World Cup, and in such glorious style, it's surely not too soon to suggest the Football Ferns of last night have the talent and desire to become the first New Zealand team to make the World Cup knockout rounds, too.

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History was made at Eden Park on Thursday night.

New Zealand scored its first victory at a Fifa World Cup — beating Norway 1-nil.

Striker Hannah Wilkinson scored in the second half, snatching the victory for the Ferns.

She said they just knew it was going to happen, that the belief that they had to put one away and that was the moment to do so.

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ZB's D'Arcy Waldegrave is back to weigh in on the latest news in the world of sport! Highlight include:

Senior writer at The Athletic, Meg Linehan, on the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Takback - Have you got your tickets?

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Yesterday, as Matt Heath was leaving this studio after The Huddle, I asked him if he was going to any FIFA Women’s World Cup games.

He turned around and laughed and made an observation along the lines of- you can force people to do a lot of diversity stuff, but you can’t force them to buy tickets to entertainment.

Isn’t that exactly right.

The Government can force their agencies to fill half their boards with women, the Labour Party can try to force itself to get to 50 percent women MPs, and public broadcasters can force their hosts to mihi in te reo.

But no one can force you to buy tickets to a women’s game of football if you don’t want to go.

Matt's words came back to me this morning as I listened to Grant Robertson and a media outlet basically trying to shame us into buying tickets.

Grant Robertson said New Zealanders need to "pick up their game" around ticket sales. The media outlet paraphrased him by saying New Zealanders needed to do better. 

The tone there is that we are obligated to do something that we are refusing to do. But that’s not how sport works.

We are not obligated to buy the tickets. It's entertainment. And if we don’t want to watch women’s football, we don’t need to.

The origin of this frustration seems to be that the tickets are selling much faster in Australia than they're selling over here. We've bought less than half of the 900,000 available tickets to matches in New Zealand.

There's probably simple explanation for that- our women’s football team is ranked 22nd in the world, the Australians are 12th. We care a lot less because we know our team hasn’t even got a shot at the finals.

Now we might just be leaving it to the last minute. And once the hype is in full swing, we might yet buy all the tickets available. We'll have to wait to see.

But know this- if Kiwis do buy those tickets it’s because they want to go. Not because they’re being diversity-shamed into going.  

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There’s less than two weeks until the FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off.

The teams have started to arrive in the country, as well as some of the good and greats of women's football.

Former US player and most capped footballer of all time, Kristine Lilly has made the trip over. She joined Jason Pine on Sportstalk to talk about the event.

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Yesterday was a big milestone for the FIFA World Cup here in New Zealand. The first of the 15 teams, Norway and Vietnam, stepped off planes at Auckland Airport. They received a warm welcome in the arrivals area, which has been transformed into a football field, signed autographs, high fived the FIFA mascot and headed to their bases.  

The FIFA World Cup kicks off in New Zealand on 20th July - and I’ve got to say: where’s the hype?  

This tournament is huge for New Zealand - even if it’s shared with Australia. It's set to be the biggest event New Zealand has ever hosted. FIFA estimates the tournament will bring more than $200 million into the New Zealand economy.  

30,000 spectators are expected to arrive in the county to watch the tournament, throwing extra income into local economies. Tourism New Zealand is working hard to promote New Zealand to the potential 1.5 billion international viewers expected to watch the games. It’s all good. The benefits for both the country and women’s football are massive.  

But aside from the economic benefits and the beautiful videos Tourism New Zealand is producing for overseas audiences, there doesn’t seem to be a much fuss. We don’t seem to understand or have embraced the magnitude of what’s about to take place.  

I may be wrong. You may have a footballer in your house and a countdown on the fridge for the New Zealand vs Norway opening game at Eden Park on 20th July. Or for the other games taking place in Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin. If I’m wrong - set me right. Reassure me we’re ready to go.  

But slow-ish ticket sales suggest we’ve been doing the Kiwi thing of waiting until the last minute to get tickets. Giving ourselves time to confirm it’s ‘going off’ and something worth being part of. How much the hype grows, and the country gets behind the Cup, will also come down to how the Football Ferns go.  

On the Sunday Session I’ve spoken to footballers who’ve played at a World Cup, or are ambassadors for this World Cup. They tell me you won’t find a more exciting atmosphere and that it’s a great sporting spectacle whether you’re a football fan or not.  

So it’s time to commit, because it’s not just the tourists and footballers who will make this a successful tournament for NZ. It’s us.  

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Sky Stadium CEO Shane Harmon and Porirua Mayor Anita Baker join Nick Mills for the final business panel in the Sky Stadium studios. 

Together they discuss Porirua Business Month, FIFA Women's World Cup ticket sales, oral submissions being made on the LGWM Golden Mile plan, potential incoming water restrictions, and how businesses are feeling cost of living pressures. 

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FIFA are reportedly considering banning rainbow armbands at the upcoming women's World Cup.

No decision has been made yet, but FIFA's rules state that team equipment should not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements and images.

Sportstalk's D'Arcy Waldegrave says it's also likely that FIFA will be looking to avoid a repeat of the OneLove armband controversy at last year's Qatar World Cup.

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It's another day for sports news, and today was a big one! Highlights for this evening include: 

Sponsorship consultant Rachel Froggatt on whether Saudi Arabia will get away with sponsoring the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Talkback on that subject.

 Former Black Cap Danny Morrison on the disappointing end to the Black Caps' tour of India.

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NZ Football isn't happy about being left out of the loop when it comes to the sponsorship of the Women's World Cup.

Both NZF and Football Australia have asked Gianni Infantino why they weren't informed that Saudi Arabia may become a sponsor.

Sports marketing consultant Rachel Froggatt specialises in creating social impact sponsorships and campaigns, she spoke to D’Arcy Waldegrave on Sportstalk about whether this is a good move by FIFA.

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