The First Women’s World Cup Was Erased From History. Fifty Years Later, a TIFF Documentary Is Making It Right (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comManori Ravindran Executive Editor of International In August 1971, more than 100,000 football fans packed Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium for a historic tournament.
Teams from England, France, Denmark, Argentina and Italy flew in for 21 days of matches alongside Mexico’s national team, while eager sponsors lined up for a piece of the action.
The players, who received a hero’s welcome wherever they went, might as well have been the Rolling Stones. They were, in fact, a group of around 100 women — many of them teenagers — taking part in the first unofficial Women’s World Cup.
And just as quickly as they tasted fame, it was snatched away as the tournament was all but erased from football history. In a new documentary premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September, the global football event known as COPA 71 will finally get its due more than half a century later, mere months after the ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicked off in Australia and New Zealand.
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