Year: 2023

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directors: Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine

By Caz Armstrong

Growing up in England football (soccer) was everywhere. As children we played it in the streets, it’s on screens in every pub in the land. I was never a particular fan myself but the first time I saw women’s football on TV I literally did a double take. On the actual TV? Someone wanted to televise women playing football?! It felt huge.

Most would say the first women’s World Cup was in 1991 but “Copa 71,” executive produced by Venus Williams and Serena Williams, shows us that it was actually two decades earlier. We’re given a brief history of women’s football (from being banned for 50 years to being made illegal in some countries) before exploring the fascinating, uplifting and infuriating story of the 1971 women’s world cup. It was the highest attended women’s sporting event in history yet one that has been actively suppressed by sporting bodies and still not recognised by FIFA.

The film uses talking-head style interviews, having tracked down original players from various teams to tell their stories. Archive footage and photographs show exactly what they remember with great detail and charm. Nothing new here with the style of delivery but it’s bright and engaging, with women explaining what it meant to them personally to have played in such a groundbreaking tournament. It’s a story of passion, mistreatment and sexism played out on the world stage.

Mostly we’re struck by how a group of normal young women were thrust into something way bigger than they knew. They didn’t grow up aspiring to be football players or thinking they’d smash the patriarchy, they just wanted to play.

A good documentary will make you care about the subject matter as well as simply learning facts, and “Copa 71” certainly does both. Information is evenly paced as it covers the event from start to finish without focusing too heavily on one specific aspect or climactic moment.

It’s not trying to trip us up with ‘gotcha’ moments either, it’s simply telling the story of David vs Goliath being watched by 110,000 cheering fans and televised in full technicolour. David might have won that round but Goliath would just ban him from the stadium for the next twenty years, mock, belittle and obscure him.

“Copa 71” treads a careful line between both joy and injustice. On the one hand the players’ passion is still radiant fifty years on. After growing up being actively discouraged and bullied for playing football, their glee at simply being able to do what they love is clear. Not only that, on the world stage with thousands of men women and children cheering them on! It’s hard not to get swept up in their recollections.

Against this joy, the players’ sexist discrimination by those meant to support them is even more galling. Add to that the future generations who were (and still are) robbed of this simple pleasure for no reason other than sexism.

A final grace note gives us hope for the current state of women’s football which is gaining in popularity year on year in spite of the kind of disgusting blatant discrimination women have faced for decades. But it still feels like not nearly enough.

These pioneering women deserve to have their story told, and this bright and engaging documentary tells it well. While fairly structured in approach, passion is infectious and hopefully a fire will be lit in even the most casual fan’s belly. We can all feel for the women who have been, and still are, denied the simple pleasure of playing a game with the same encouragement, facilities, and pay as those of the opposite sex.