Correcting the Myth: 10 landmark crowds that define women’s football

I saw an email this week chastising people who mentioned Marta when Messi became the leading World Cup goalscorer.

The writer made some good points - for a start, comparing women’s and men’s sport isn’t helpful to either narrative. They made the point that an “us vs them” mentality makes us choose a side rather than enjoy all sport.

And then they stated that resentment is a turn-off to potential fans.

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I think maybe they missed the point of the posts mentioning Marta alongside Messi. Some will have been based on resentment and I bet my posts sometimes come across as resentment too.

But the major point is, you can’t talk about the FIFA World Cup’s highest scorers and only talk about the male players. Otherwise the same structural erasure that has hidden the history of women’s football, threatens to hide the present.

They were essentially saying that by advocating for women’s sport, we have to stay in our lane, be polite, not ruffle any feathers or bother anyone by pointing out omissions.

I think this urge to keep women’s football polite and small mirrors what we see in the boardrooms of clubs cutting the women’s budgets. It’s an optional extra not an equal (a problematic word in this context, but I think regular readers know what I mean).

The narrative that women’s football is an inherently vulnerable product, relying on the charity of the men’s side is a myth built on structural exclusion rather than public indifference.

And I have a few data points to back this up….

Here’s 10 chronological crowds that shatter the myth of indifference:

1. 11,000+ | Crouch End, London, 1895. The match: British Ladies Football Club split their players into North and South - apparently according to which side of the river they came from.

   
   Long before the men’s game had built its massive commercial infrastructure, over 10,000 people came to watch the women play. Public curiosity and commercial viability existed from day one.

2. 53,000 | Goodison Park, Liverpool, 1920.The match: Dick, Kerr Ladies vs St Helens Ladies

   The famous game that probably led to the ban had 53,000 people inside the stadium and over 10,000 locked outside.

   With clear evidence that women’s football was drawing crowds to rival men’s football, the FA introduced the 1921 ban.

3. 50,000 | Lisbon, Portugal, 1959The match: Manchester Corinthians vs. Benfica

   Deep into the English ban years the Corinthians toured across Europe. Having won an early European trophy in Germany in 1957, they continued their travels. On the tour were Portugal, Holland, Belgium, France, and Italy. Their game against Benfica proved that European fans loved women’s football.

4. 60,000 | Caracas, Venezuela, 1960The match: Manchester Corinthians South American Tour

   While English clubs forced women onto local parks, the Corinthians continued to explore the world. After Europe, they began a South American tour and drew 60,000 fans to the Estadio Olimpico in Venezuela. Public excitement over their technical skill led to their six-week tour being extended to three months.

5. 50,000 | Stadio Comunale, Turin, 1970The match: Italy vs Denmark, FIEFF World Cup Final

   Independent European business owners realised the commercial potential of the game decades before FIFA did. Sponsored by Martini & Rossi, this packed stadium proved the European appetite survived the bans.

6. 110,000+ | Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 1971The match: Mexico vs Denmark, Copa ‘71 Final

   The big one. Fans paid ticket prices equivalent to the men’s 1970 World Cup to fill the Azteca. FIFA threatened to suspend any stadium associated with it, but nobody took any notice.

7. 45,000 | Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou, 1988
   
   The match: China vs Canada at the FIFA Women’s Invitational Tournament

   Despite the evidence they’d tried to hide (or maybe because of it), FIFA feared nobody would turn up if they sanctioned a Women’s World Cup. So they ran an under-the-radar test event. An event they made up a name for in order to protect their “World Cup” brand.
   The crowd for the opening match gave them their signal and that ker-ching feeling, compelling them to greenlight the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991.

8. 90,185 | Rose Bowl, Pasadena, 1999The match: USA vs China, FIFA World Cup final

   The watershed moment for modern-day women’s football. The 1999 FIFA World Cup in the USA proved that women’s football/soccer could bring in massive audiences. It changed women’s football, on and off the pitch, forever.

9. 91,648 | Camp Nou, Barcelona, 2022The match: Barcelona Femeni vs VfL Wolfsburg, UWCL semi-final

   With the dawning of massive international crowds, like at the Rose Bowl in 1999, came the sceptics’ next argument: yeah, but women can’t draw a crowd for a domestic game. Alexia Putellas’ Barcelona replied, hold my beer.

10. 60,160 | Emirates Stadium, London, 2024The match: Arsenal v Manchester United, WSL

    Arsenal remain the only WSL team who’ve cracked the code when it comes to their audience. Proof that understanding your product and your buyers, and investing in them, brings the same level of crowd as their male counterparts.

Bonus crowd: 63,004 | Empower Field at Mile High, Denver, 2026The match: Denver Summit FC vs Washington Spirit, NWSL

Just a few months ago, 28 March 2026, this expansion opener proved that the USA has a large and growing domestic fanbase too. This record-breaking crowd not only set the highest attendance in history for the NWSL but also for a U.S. women’s professional sports league event. It sold over 20,000 more tickets than the previous record.

Let me know your thoughts.

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