Spain shone as women's football broke boundaries

Inthe first of a series on 2023's big tournaments, Suzanne Wrack reflects onrecord attendances inAustraliaandNew Zealand and signsa newera has started

- Suzanne Wrack

In a year where the actions of the disgraced former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales and, more recently, Joey Barton's sexist rampage have dominated headlines, you could be forgiven for thinking 2023 was a year of setbacks for women's football and women in football. Yet those incidents, and others, have only looked more ludicrous when contrasted with a Women's World Cup that captured hearts and generated the second-highest income for any global sporting event - behind the men's World Cup.

Ian Wright said it best before the Euro 2022 final: "We don't need to worry about the dinosaurs. I saw someone say something about the dinosaurs screaming at the meteor. I love it - that's what those negative people are. See how many millions of people have been watching these women play - there's people out there for this game."

The good

The people out there for this game? Well, there was a peak audience of 12 million watching the final of the Women's World Cup between England and Spain on BBC One, with a further 3.9 million watching on iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app. In Spain, RTVE's main channel La 1 secured a peak audience of 7.38 million viewers, an audience share of 71.1%. Staggeringly, 53.9 million in China watched the country's 6-1 defeat by England in their final group match, while the audience in the co-hosts Australia peaked at 11.15 million for their semi-final defeat by England.