Tipping Point?

Record-breaking attendances suggest that this could be a breakthrough year

- Glenn Moore

In recent years, women’s football has abounded with talk of tipping points and game-changers, with the sport seemingly forever on the cusp of making a great leap forward. In reality, progress has been a mix of other cliches, forever taking two steps forward and one backwards, encountering false dawns as it edges out of the shadows into which it was cast during decades of prohibition.

Nevertheless, while there has been no seismic moment of late to match the famous bra-top World Cup-winning celebration of USA’s Brandi Chastain in 1999, the trend line has been surging upwards and 2019 is shaping up as a breakthrough year.

A World Cup always provides a boost but, more significantly, the club game is finally making waves by attracting fans, sponsors and media coverage.

This season, 60,739 people watched Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid in the Wanda Metropolitano, while 39,000 saw Juventus’ victory over Fiorentina at the Allianz Stadium. Both were regular league games, and while tickets in Turin were free and either moderately priced or free to Atletico season-ticket holders in Madrid, the fact is more than 100,000 people still went to the two games.

Eniola Aluko, the former England striker who is now at Juventus, says: “It was absolutely incredible to see a full house. There were a lot of tears and emotion. A lot of these girls, particularly Italian girls, grew up never thinking this could happen.”