A volleyball match in the United States was attended by 92,003 spectators. According to the organizers, this is a new record for the number of spectators in a sports competition for women, but this claim is not justified.
A Feyenoord fan in 1963. Photo by Eric Koch via National Archives
The volleyball game was held between the Universities of Nebraska and Omaha and was played at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. There were several hundred more spectators than last year at the UEFA Women’s Champions League match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg. There are already too many, but the record has yet to be broken. Not quite yet, even.
social history
Historically aware sports organizations are good, but independent research into the history of sport is even better. This case clearly illustrates this, as it is not entirely clear what the new world record claim is based on. After all, just king The history of sport, which was made within the official organizational structure of international sport.
This obscures the view of the social history of women’s sports, as it has been around for a very long time the outside played by the official world of sport – especially in football. All developments are hidden before the official admission of men’s sporting directors, mainly to make their role bigger and more impressive than it actually was.
So we see it happen again in USA volleyball, with the organizers blowing themselves up – just as it did with FIFA last year. In fact, it has nothing to do with independent historical research. Unfortunately, the chance of an ordinary sports editor noticing this is very small, because knowledge of the history of sports there is very limited.
Mexico 1971
For example, the 1971 Women’s World Cup in Mexico was ignored, one year after the men’s World Cup was held in the same country. The difference between these two events was that the first was organized by FIFA and the second was not.
The women’s event was in the hands The independent European Union for Women’s FootballFIEFF for short. Neither FIFA nor the Mexican Football Federation wanted to hold a women’s world championship at all, thus causing as many problems as possible for FIFA. All this is in vain, because never before has such an audience come to such an extent. This, in turn, generated a lot of interest from the international media.
During the final match at the Aztecs stadium the crowd was packed. This will mainly be because the host country played against Denmark. Not all journalists were equally enthusiastic about this. “Emancipation has already advanced that far,” he reported Polygon World News For example, she was very sarcastic in her report, making no effort to hide her distaste for women’s football, with heavy use of diminutiveness. To great cheers, the Mexican women rushed out. But the Danish girls scored first. Denmark eventually won this final, just as they had done a year earlier in the World Cup in Italy.
international record
The 1970 World Cup Final in Italy already attracted 40,000 spectators, a huge number for international women’s football at the time. It was nothing compared to Mexico in 1971. On August 15, 1971, 100,000 (one hundred thousand!) people watched the host nation, who beat Argentina 3-1. In the semi-final against Italy, 80,000 to 90,000 were counted. The highlight was the final, with 110,000 to 115,000 spectators attending – at least according to the BBC.
This means an increase of about 20,000 visitors from the so-called new world record. That volleyball game at Memorial Stadium isn’t even in the top three! The fact that FIFA and other sports organizations do not officially recognize the FIFA World Cup is completely irrelevant – at least to an independent researcher. Otherwise, this World Cup will be for second It has been expunged from history once: first in 1971 itself, and now again.
Sporting history isn’t written on the association’s meeting tables, though they themselves might think it is. That is why the 1971 World Cup Final is the most attended women’s sports match ever. With a bit of luck, U.S. women’s volleyball is now fourth at most.
