Steph Catley hopes to see ‘Euros effect’ in Australia after Women’s World Cup

S teph Catley knows what kind of impact hosting the Women’s Euros had in England. She felt it first hand, walking around the streets of London bathed in the afterglow of the Lionesses’ triumph. The Matildas defender saw the effect it had on the lives of Arsenal teammates such as Beth Mead and Leah Williamson. “They’re superheroes on another level to the young girls over here,” Catley says. “They can’t walk down the street without being recognised”.

Most of all, she has lived it, playing for Arsenal in an extra-time defeat to Wolfsburg in the Champions League semi-final in front of 60,063 fans at Emirates Stadium – 58,657 more than the last time the Gunners hosted a European semi and an attendance that set a new record for women’s club football in the UK.

Now, it’s the turn of her homeland. The 2023 Women’s World Cup, the biggest sporting event Australia has seen since the 2000 Olympics, is now just a month away.

The tournament has become a shining beacon on the hill Down Under ever since Fifa president Gianni Infantino declared the “As One” joint bid with New Zealand successful, a kind of cure-all for the ills of the game and the potion that will lift it to new heights, often with not a lot of detail beyond that.

Participation numbers amongst young girls are expected to explode on the way to a 50-50 gender split. The A-League Women’s competition is hoping the World Cup will supercharge public interest and crowds for the coming season – the first in which it will play a full home-and-away fixture. A legacy in facilities at both the elite level and on the ground in communities, where there is a critical lack of female-friendly spaces, is targeted. So too a legacy of women’s leadership in refereeing, coaching and