Sabina and Co to follow epoch-making Women's World Cup

The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off today with co-hosts New Zealand and Australia in action, with both matches combinedly set to welcome more than 100,000 fans.

The marquee event has gradually grown in stature, as evidenced by the involvement of 32 teams in the ninth edition. The previous instalment featured 24 teams while the inaugural one in China in 1991 saw 12 participants.

According to agencies, the seventh edition of World Cup in 2015 in Canada welcomed a record 1.3 million-plus fans at stadiums but this time the mark is expected to surpass, as nearly 1.4 million tickets have been sold till date.

The fans in Australia had already created a buzz by buying out all tickets for their opening match against Ireland, to be hosted at the 80,000-plus-capacity Stadium Australia.

The craze, however, is a bit less in their neighbour since the tickets of New Zealand's campaign opener against Norway at the near 50,000-capacity Eden Park are still available, leading to FIFA president Gianni Infantino urging fans to "seize the moment" and snap up World Cup tickets.

In Bangladesh, the tournament would not match the fan-following of the men's World Cup. However, the booters of the national women's team are apparently eager to absorb the action in store, with the opportunity to watch those matches in local private channels.

"To be honest, I haven't watched the matches of the Women's World Cup on that scale, but I will watch the USA, Japan and a few others in action," Bangladesh women's team captain, Sabina Khatun, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"However, other players of the national women's team are more eager to watch the Women's World Cup than me because they, especially the junior players, always sit in front of television to watch different men's and women's matches as well as see video clips of technical and skill aspects."

Sabina believes the opportunity to watch the Women's World Cup in local channels this time is good news for the enthusiastic local footballer lovers, who turned up in numbers during women's international fixtures.

Replying to a query, she said, "It is really hard to explain why the football fans in Bangladesh are not much interested in the Women's World Cup, but I think when our women's team reach the Asian level, the spectators would also grow their interest to watch the Women's World Cup.

"I think this edition of the World Cup will be more exciting than the last edition," added Sabina, who would wait to predict the names of favourites until the completion of the group-stage matches.