SYDNEY (Reuters) – Shiny ceremonies in Australia and Novel Zealand marked the one-year countdown to the ninth Females’s World Cup on Wednesday, culminating in the lighting up of landmarks across the 9 host cities.
The 32-crew match, the first Females’s World Cup in the southern hemisphere, will kick off in Sydney and Auckland on July 20 subsequent year when Australia’s Matildas and Novel Zealand’s Soccer Ferns play their opening matches.
A cultural lighting ceremony started the day at destroy of day in Hamilton, Novel Zealand, whereas FIFA Secretary-Overall Fatma Samoura used to be later available to unveil a “Team spirit Pitch” beside Sydney harbour.
“As of late the gap between the men’s recreation and the ladies’s recreation is going to gather smaller and smaller,” she urged newshounds.
“We’ve viewed after every World Cup that the different of oldsters that register in the host country, nevertheless additionally in the countries that were half of the recreation, is straight away multiplied by three.”
Samoura acknowledged football’s worldwide governing physique used to be discussing raising the prize pool even additional to $100 million.
The prize pool for the 2019 match in France, acquired by the united states, used to be $30 million and FIFA possess already dedicated to a $60 million pot for subsequent year.
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The 2019 match attracted chronicle crowds and TV audiences, sparking an explosion in the profile of the ladies’s recreation that organisers hope subsequent year’s World Cup will additional chase up.
While the powerhouse United States crew will possible be favourites to eliminate the trophy for the third match in a row at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium on Aug. 20 subsequent year, there used to be some honest info for co-hosts Australia on Wednesday.
Matilda Ellie Wood worker used to be on the Sydney occasion and confirmed she used to be on schedule to be match to play in the match after sustaining a excessive knee destroy on club accountability in France in Would possibly.
The defensive mainstay acknowledged she used to be ecstatic on the likelihood of playing in the showpiece of the ladies’s recreation in her possess country.
“I assume here is going to be considered one of many greatest events,” she acknowledged. “So I’m very ecstatic to be half of it … and here on dwelling soil, there’s nothing better.”
The Team spirit Pitch will tour every of the host cities over the next year, whereas Samoura will later flip on a delicate display cowl featuring the match logo on Sydney’s Harbour Bridge.
(Reporting by Cut Mulvenney; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)