James Johnson France Australia Norway Ireland New Zealand Football soccer cup as James Johnson France Australia Norway Ireland New Zealand

Thousands gather in Sydney as FIFA Women's World Cup fever builds

news24.com

Thousands of football fans marched over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday to mark 25 days before the Women's World Cup starts in Australia and New Zealand.Football's governing body FIFA estimated around 4,000 braved chilly temperatures to take part in the early morning event on the famed bridge, which was temporarily closed to traffic.Co-hosts Australia and New Zealand kick off the 32-team tournament on July 20 when the Matildas play Ireland in Sydney and the Football Ferns face Norway in Auckland.FIFA says more than one million tickets have been sold for the 64 games in nine host cities, surpassing total sales for the 2019 World Cup in France.FIFA official Rhiannon Martin told AFP she expected this year's tournament would be a "milestone" for women's football in Australia."We've seen how women's football has developed here over the last years," added Martin, who is head of FIFA Women's World Cup.FIFA has said each player at the World Cup will earn at least $30,000, with the winners taking home $270,000 apiece.Martin said the boost to the prize money pot showed that "women's football is really being valued".James Johnson, chief executive of Football Australia, told AFP it "starts to bridge the gap" between prize money for the men's and women's World Cup. "We still have a bit of work to do over the next four years, but being the World Cup where the lift occurred makes us very proud," he added.

Related News
MELBOURNE : Sam Kerr was a spellbound seven-year-old when she watched Indigenous Australian Cathy Freeman inspire a nation with an electrifying run for the 400m gold at the Sydney Olympics.
RIYADH: Denmark’s Anders Vejrgang has hailed Saudi Esports Federation tournaments as “special,” as the 17-year-old celebrated becoming a FIFAe Club World Cup champion with RBLZ Gaming at Gamers8: The Land of Heroes, two years after triumphing at Gamers Without Borders.
New UAE manager Paulo Bento has vowed to have no regrets during his time with the national team, saying the most appropriate way to make fans happy is simply by winning matches.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) acting chairman Zaka Ashraf will push for the country's ODI World Cup matches at neutral venues at the ICC meeting in Durban this week, the Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (Sports), Ehsan Mazari, has said. "Zaka Ashraf will bring up the issue of why can't Pakistan's matches in the World Cup be played at neutral venues when the Indian team can't travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup," he said. India has refused to play its Asia Cup matches in Pakistan owing to geopolitical tensions, and after months of speculation around the continental tournament, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) announced that the event will be staged in a hybrid model with four games in Pakistan and nine in Sri Lanka from August 31 to September 17.
MELBOURNE : Global soccer governing body FIFA has agreed to requests from Australia and New Zealand to display Indigenous flags at the Women's World Cup, the co-hosts said on Friday.

Latest News

Change privacy settings
This page might use cookies if your analytics vendor requires them.