Sammy Murrell: The moment that almost had me in tears
Watching Australia and Aotearoa descend into a frenzy over women’s football is healing my younger self.
Sammy Murrell is a former New Zealand Junior Football Fern from Southland who now
lives in the United States after playing and studying at Havard University. Murrell has joined The Tribune team as a columnist for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
When the crowd of almost 50,000 fans erupted into a roar after Cortnee Vine slotted the penalty that sent the Matildas into a World Cup semi-final for the first time, I almost burst into tears.
Watching Australia and Aotearoa descend into a frenzy over women’s football is healing my younger self, who grew up playing in an environment where sexist comments in women’s football were as common as shin bruises.
About a decade and a half ago, I was sitting in Invercargill Airport with my mum, one of my teammates, and his mum.
My teammate and I were about to board a flight to attend a training camp that NZ Football used to run during the school holidays for players on the path to New Zealand age group teams and beyond. At some point during a conversation about the opportunities that might open up for us if we did well, my teammate’s Mum looked at me directly and said, “it’s easier for you to make it, because you’re a girl.”
This comment might have been easier to digest, had I not been twelve.
Casual dismissals of my hard work and accomplishments tied to my identity as a female athlete followed me throughout my playing career. There were the “nobody wants to watch women’s football” and the “why should we pay female players the same as male players?” There were the people who were surprised that I could do weighted pull ups and push ups (I have the many months of arm workouts courtesy of a foot injury to thank for this).
There were the countless games my team had to get ready in a men’s changing room–with urinals, one stall, and no sanitary bins–because there were no women’s changing rooms.
More recently, when I was looking for somewhere to watch the Ferns versus Switzerland game at 3am, a group of men outside a bar spotted the silver fern on my jersey and announced, “this girl is an All Blacks fan!” Boy, was it satisfying to tell them that the jersey was 1. for women’s soccer, and 2. mine.
People do want to watch women’s sports. Female players should be paid the same as male players. These statements have always been true, but the success of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup has made them much harder to deny.
As of July 24, 1.5 million tickets for 2023 the tournament had been sold. Sales cruised past the roughly 1.35 million tickets sold for the 2015 edition in Canada and the 1.1 million sold for the 2019 edition in France.
Australia’s nail-biting shootout win over France had an estimated domestic TV audience of 7.2 million people and briefly became the biggest television event in Australia since 2000. This was surpassed by their semi-final loss to England, which drew 11.15 million viewers in Australia alone. That’s more than double the population of Aotearoa.
I’m not naive enough to think that the World Cup has fixed sexism in football. But this tournament–with its record ticket sales, sold-out stadiums, and global attention–is a huge step forward for the women’s game.
After Spain dispatched Sweden 2-1 in a thrilling end to the World Cup in Aotearoa and England brought the Matildas’ dream run to an end in Sydney, there are two games left in the tournament. Australia will take on Sweden in the third-place match on Saturday, and England and Spain will battle for a maiden title on Sunday.
Even though the curtains are about to close on the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, this tournament has the potential to be the foreword to the next installment of women’s football. But NZ Football must keep the momentum going.
Growing women’s football even further after hosting the World Cup is like being gifted a goal on a silver platter. Much of the hard work has been done already (shown by the massive success of the tournament), but we still have to put the ball in the back of the net.
This means ensuring that girls and women all across the country have the opportunities, facilities, and support they need to succeed in football and enjoy the game. There is still work to be done after the final whistle sounds on Sunday.
You can read more from Sammy over on her Substack, Murrell of the Story