By Paul Nicholson in Zurich
May 27 – The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015 that kicks off in Canada in 12 days time is poised to break ticket sales records and fulfill predictions that this will be the breakthrough competition that unequivocally establishes the women’s game in world football.
Victor Montagliani, president of the Canadian Soccer Association, speaking in Zurich on the fringes of the FIFA Congress, said: “I think this could be the breakthrough and Canada is the place to make this happen. You have to understand that the sport transcends gender in our country. To us it is just football.”
Canada has a law that for every dollar spent on boys’ sport, a dollar has to spent on girls’ sport (or vice versa…). It is a sports gender equality law that is not seen anywhere else in the world on a national scale.
Montagliani, asked how preparations were going, pointed to 900,000 ticket sales to date, at real prices of around the $50 ticket price. The final is sold out, with the opening match also close to selling out.
The Canadian target for ticket sales was 1.5 million, which Montagliani said might be a bit ambitious, but sales have already pretty much passed the sales achieved for Germany in 2011 and are closing on the US record of 1.1 million in 1999.
Canada 2015 will be the first time the tournament has hosted 24 teams with games being played in six cities across five time zones. The first two fixtures of the round robin group matches will be played as double headers, with the final group matches being played as single matches in venues.
The tournament was original plagued by dispute over whether it should be played on natural grass or artificial surfaces – the senior players wanted grass but organisers and FIFA were planning for articifial turf. Those arguments have, if not settled to everyone’s satisfaction, been shelved for what the players and organisers have deemed, correctly if ticket sales are an indication, for the greater good of the tournament.
This week the Canada 2015 organisers take over the stadiums in order to prepare ‘clean’ venues for the championship, its operations and sponsors.
The first game kicks off June 6 in Edmonton with Canada hosting China followed by New Zealand vs Holland. Need yFrom this point the women’s game may never look back.
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