The forgotten World Cup of 1971: six women’s teams in sold-out Mexican football stadiums

In macho country Mexico, six women’s teams played an unofficial World Cup in the summer of 1971. A year after the men’s tournament, with the Brazilian ‘divine canary’ Pelé in the leading role, Mexico was again the scene of a world championship. This time with women’s teams, who competed for honors in large, usually sold-out stadiums without FIFA recognition. No starting money, no profit bonuses. According to the World Football Association, the tournament was never even played and the first Women’s World Cup took place in 1991. In 2024, women’s football is the fastest growing sport in the world.

All income from the tournament went to sponsors and to TV station Televisa, which saw and found a gap in the market. The only goal was to make money, not gender equality. The women’s teams of Mexico, Argentina, England, France, Italy and Denmark were cheered on by mainly men in the stands, we see in the sensational documentary Copa 71 which will be broadcast on NPO 2 on Thursday evening.

Grainy images

The British filmmakers used newspaper photos and grainy amateur footage, giving us a fascinating insight into the ‘forgotten’ World Cup. Most players saw themselves playing football for the first time. Some look back with fond stories. An Italian who delivered a death kick in the “battle” against Mexico – captured by an attentive photographer – shows little remorse 53 years later. Two Danish former players laugh cheerfully. They had won the tournament.

The filmmakers spoke to more leading actresses who had ended up in “a kind of football fairy tale”. The English, “all brought up in working-class families,” had never flown before they were greeted as heroines “in a cauldron of heat and noise.” In their own country they played on clay courts for friends and acquaintances, in the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City on clean-shaven grass for 100,000 spectators, most of whom were lured in for free. The stadiums had to be filled, Copa 71 was a showcase.

“Tears rolled down my cheeks,” England captain Carol Wilson said to the camera half a century later. No, then the cool reception in our own country after the early elimination. She was laughed at by a male driver at some kind of welcome dinner. “It made me cry,” says one. “We were erased with an eraser, even though we thought we had put women’s football on the map. Not so nice,” says another.

‘Indecent activity’

In Mexico, the six national teams had been worshiped “as sex symbols” a month earlier. One newspaper wrote about “beauties, not muscular monsters.” According to the French, the men only came to look at them because of their bare, tanned legs. All women were fitted with shorts. They did not have their own uniform, it was so amateurish everywhere. And everything had to be illegal, because the participants were also boycotted by their own national football association.

Sexism or not, it was perhaps less bad than all the advantages they had been up against worldwide for almost the entire twentieth century. According to FIFA, women’s football was “an indecent, immoral activity.” In England, football players were called “wives.”

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