The advertisement seems fairly atypical. Clips of French footballers, known as the les Bleus (for their blue jerseys), playing to rapturous commentary and pulsating music, making daring moves and scoring audacious goals.
“Only les Bleus can give us these emotions,” says the tagline, before switching to, “But that’s not them you’ve just seen”.
Halfway into the video, the images change. From using VFX to not, switching the faces of famous French male players like Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann superimposed over lesser known female players like Sakina Karchaoui and Delphine Cascarino besides others.
The tagline changes to, “At Orange we support les Bleus…Bleues.”
The advertisement made as a promotion to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which started on Thursday with a match between hosts New Zealand and Norway, aims to bring attention to the discipline that’s long been played under the shadow of its male counterparts.
The first Women’s World Cup to be co-hosted by two nations (with Australia) has a record 32 country participants, including defending champion the US, with the final on 20 August. Eight countries make their debut this year, including Republic of Ireland, Vietnam, Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal and Zambia, the lowest ranked team in the tournament at No. 77.
Early predictions place this as possibly the most-watched women’s World Cup. According to football’s governing body FIFA, more than 1.3 million tickets have been sold in advance for the 64 matches at 10 venues across nine cities. The organisers have set their sights on two billion television viewers, double the audience that watched the 2019 World Cup in France. The opening match alone is said to have had a sell-out crowd of over 50,000 — Australia play Ireland in the second match of the opening day.
While a shooting incident near the Norwegian team hotel in Auckland, which left three dead and six injured, brought undue negative attention to the event, a FIFA statement has said the incident was not related to the World Cup.
The top five ranked countries, the US, Germany, Sweden, England and France, are the natural favourites for the tournament, while New Zealand and Australia may make the most of their home advantage. While players like Australian striker Sam Kerr are already drawing in the crowds in that country, the sport is still not as popular in New Zealand, which is dominated by the All Blacks and rugby.
Women footballers are late starters to the sport, compared to the men, often facing gender discrimination, which has changed over the years. While they still lag in terms of working conditions, playing conditions and pay, the discipline’s growing popularity along with the attention some of its biggest stars bring, has ensured its growing popularity.
This year, half of the World Cup prize money of $110 million will be paid to the players in the 32 teams, according to an Associated Press report. The prize kitty is more than thrice the $30 million FIFA paid at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. Though still significantly less than the $440 million paid to the men in the World Cup last year in Qatar, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said the goal is to equalise the prize money by the 2026 men’s World Cup and the 2027 women’s edition, the AP report adds.
One of the sport’s most recognisable faces and its biggest stars, American Megan Rapinoe, will be playing her fourth and final World Cup. In the 2019 edition, the outspoken Rapinoe, now sporting frosty blue short hair, won the Golden Boot for most goals and Golden Ball for the best player. The now 38-year-old, who has already won an Olympic gold medal (2012) and two World Cups (2015, 2019), rose to international fame in addition for her anthem protests, advocacy of equal pay and gay rights, and her conflict with the then President Donald Trump.
If the US win the World Cup, Julie Ertz, Alex Morgan, Alyssa Naeher, Kelley O’Hara and Rapinoe will join Pele as the only footballers with three World Cup titles. The 2023 edition will also hopefully correct one of the common errors football followers make — of assuming all great records are held only by the men. Brazilian Marta and Canadian Christine Sinclair join Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to have scored in five World Cups — with 2023 giving them a chance to score in a sixth. Sinclair has also captained Canada in 15 World Cup matches — closing in on Lionel Messi’s 19 appearances. Marta and Rapinoe also stand a chance to equal Messi’s two Golden Ball awards for the final, with both women doing it in 2007 and 2019 respectively.
Besides, players like Morgan bring an extra element of awe into their sport. The American, who had a baby just 10 months after she won the 2019 World Cup with the US, juggles parenting duties with a high intensity sport. “This is my first World Cup as a mom, so I just want to also just represent mom athletes and the accomplishments and strides we’ve been able to make in women’s soccer,” she said last month at a news conference, with her three-year-old daughter Charlie at hand. “I think it is amazing. I’m really excited for this.”
“I hope there will be a lot of people here for not just our games, but all of the games,” AP reported New Zealand’s defender Ali Riley as saying before the team’s first game. New Zealand have never won a match in five previous World Cup appearances. “I hope the excitement is there and I hope we do well, so that maybe the people who didn’t know about it will hear about it and will want to come to see us make history.”
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