Chloe Kelly, Alexia Putellas and Megan Rapinoe might have become household names in recent years, but if you’re of the belief that women’s football has only recently started to enjoy big crowds, this eye-opening documentary will set you straight.
It tells the story of the inaugural Women’s World Cup, an unofficial tournament that took place in Mexico in 1971, organised by local businessmen to capitalise on the success of the Men’s World Cup hosted by the country the previous year.
Taking place in front of 110,000 fans at a packed out Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the Copa 71 final still holds the attendance record for the largest ever crowd at a women’s sporting event. But, as narrator Serena Williams (who executive-produces with sister Venus) explains in the film’s opening credits: ‘You’ll find no mention of this event in any official history’.
Told through long-buried broadcast footage, newspaper clippings and interviews with players from various participating nations, the ensuing story is fascinating, and at times genuinely shocking, viewing for anyone unfamiliar with the oft-maligned history of women’s football.
It’s a fascinating and at times genuinely shocking story
There’s some much needed levity in the documentary’s portrayal of the sexism faced by female players throughout the ’60s and ’70s. ‘What’s a nice girl like you doing playing football?’, a smarmy male reporter asks English player Trudy McCaffery in one local news clipping so jaw-droppingly sexist that you have to laugh, even as you applaud her scathing reply.
The most emotive moments come near the end. Dutch, Mexican and English participants describe how they returned home from a tournament that they had believed would be a landmark moment in the growth of the women’s game only to be unanimously abandoned by their various national federations.
There’s a real pathos in its depiction of the sad truth that these women’s achievements mostly went unnoticed by the wider world, so much so that even former USWNT player and two-time World Cup winner Brandi Chastain has no idea what she’s watching when shown footage of the tournament during an interview.
Like Welcome to Wrexham, Netflix’s Beckham and other recent football docs, Copa 71 has clearly been produced with the sport’s growing US audience in mind. Non-American viewers might be slightly irked by the insertion of American players into a story with so little to do with the US’s later World Cup dominance.
Nevertheless, it’s a timely and galvanising telling of a remarkable story that every football fan should know, and one that will hopefully go some way towards ensuring that Copa 71 finds its way into the sport’s history books.
In UK cinemas Mar 8. In US theaters later in 2024.