Copa 71

classified PG
Film

Please note: This was screened in March 2024

Director
James Erskine, Rachel Ramsay
Cast
Elvira Aracen, Brandi Chastain, Birte Kjems
Details
90 mins, 2023, UK
Primary language
English

Told by the pioneering women who participated in it and built from archive unseen for fifty years, this is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women’s Soccer World Cup, a tournament witnessed by record crowds that has been written out of sporting history — until now.

It is August 1971. Football teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy are gathering at Mexico City’s sun-drenched Azteca Stadium. The scale of the tournament is monumental: lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, merchandise on every street corner and crowds of over 100,000 fans turn this historic stadium into ‘a cauldron of noise and heat’ match after match. A fawning media treat the players like rock stars. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the greatest moments in international footballing history.

But this is a tournament unlike anything that’s happened before. The players on the pitch are all women. And it’s likely you’ve never even heard of it. This is Copa 71, the unofficial Women’s World Cup. Dismissed by both FIFA and domestic football associations around the world, this event has been entirely written out of history - now it's time to celebrate the tournament and its players like it deserves.


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