38% of World Cup squads in Australia and New Zealand are coached by women

07/20/2023

A cry of relief and a coach’s cry Zhitka Klimkova After the final whistle of the introduction New Zealand Against Norway, it will be an emotional celebration of the World Cup hosts’ first victory under a woman’s baton, which will forever be etched in the history of the orbital event.

Jitka is one of twelve coaches leading the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, and represents 38% of the title-seeking coaches in senior women’s soccer.

In France 2019, there were eight coaches, but the number of participants was low, only 24, which is why the female quota on the technical bench is the same percentage as in Australia and New Zealand, although it is still low, it is important for the football played by women.

Luz Estela Zapata, one of the coaches of the Formas Íntimas club, admits that there is room, as the number increases each time, but says there should be more.

I’m very happy to see these coaches at the World Cup, because we don’t have more than three or four, and I hope this number will continue to grow, soon 20 or, half of them will be on the bench, but I’m happy to see the superpowers like Germany, England, China giving space to women.

Zapata argues that hormonal and gender factors are more important and that is why there should be more female coaches to guide women’s teams.

“I believe this will also happen in Colombian football, where women coaches are given more space in the teams competing in the league, because many have prepared themselves and have the character, experience and trajectory to play a better role,” he concluded.

For experienced players like Carolina Pineda, who has a soccer academy in Cali, having women on the World Cup training bench is very positive, showing progress and the end of the process.

Historical figures

But it’s not just about getting a seat on the coaches’ bench, women’s football is recording incredible numbers, as happened in the World Cup openers in Australia and New Zealand with 117,921 spectators. Of those, 75,784 attended Stadium Australia in Sydney for the home team’s debut in a 1-0 win over Ireland, while New Zealand’s 1-0 win over Norway was delivered in front of 42,137 fans at Eden Park in Auckland for the World Cup opener.

Fifa announced that 1,375,000 tickets are already in the hands of fans, so they expect a large turnout at the stadiums, and they believe that at least a quarter of the world’s population, about 2,000 million people, will watch at least one of the 64 matches played in the tournament, Fatma Samoura, Fifa’s general secretary.

This is how the World Cup progresses

Three pledges will be played this Friday. The schedules for Colombia are as follows: at 00:00 hours the Philippines will face Switzerland, then, at 2:30 am and measured with an exchange from Caracol, Spain and Costa Rica, and finally, at 8:00 pm, the United States and Vietnam will face each other.

Saturday: Zambia-Japan (2:00am), England-Haiti (4:30am) and Denmark-China (7:00am).

Colombia will debut against Korea on Monday at 7:00 p.m.