The final of Copa 71, an international football event billed as the Women’s World Cup and played at Mexico’s famous Azteca stadium, remains the highest-attended women’s sporting event in history. Yet the skills and achievements of its pioneering female players are barely known, with the male-controlled world footballing body FIFA having attempted to wipe the event from history as they sought to retain control of the world footballing narrative.
It was August 1971 and teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark, and Italy all gathered in Mexico City for this watershed soccer tournament, featuring lavish sponsorship, extensive television and newspaper coverage and attended by more than 100,000 roaring fans.
Copa 71 is a remarkably prescient and thoroughly enjoyable film from joint directors Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine, and features a series of revealing and engaging interviews from some of the women who played in the event, set alongside impressive archival material that gives a visceral sense of what the occasion must have felt like. Some of the women have hardly spoken about their participation following the negative reaction they received from footballing authorities, and their vivid and illuminating recollections give a real sense of passion for the game and their part in the tournament.
The fact that the event was so well attended and supported and yet largely wiped from our collective history is the key selling point of the film. In essence, the privately backed FIEFF (the Federation of Independent European Female Football) had staged an independent World Cup in 1970 in Italy, in which eight international teams took part, with Denmark beating Italy in the final, but the Latin American passion for the game saw the 1971 event reach record-breaking levels.
Despite the fact that fewer teams were taking part, it was the presence of well-supported teams from Mexico and Argentina that saw the fans and media attend the matches in Mexico City and Guadalajara with such passion.
From a historical perspective, a women’s international football match had been played in Scotland in 1881; matches between England, Belgian and French teams were staged in the 1920s, and a women’s European Championship was held in 1957, but the male-dominated official football federations were intent on stifling female participation (in Brazil it was effectively illegal from 1941 to 1979), often citing spurious medical opinions that soccer was bad for women’s bodies.
The film opens with American football player (and Olympic gold medallist) Brandi Chastain being showed footage from the Copa 71 event. She comments: “It makes me very happy…and quite infuriated,” as she reflects on the way pioneering women footballers have been treated.
Next up are some of the women who actually took part. Elba Selva from Argentina recalls how, “it was so beautiful.” Nicole Mangas from France adds how “it was something magical,” while for Silvia Zaragoza from Mexico, “this was where I felt free for the first time.” Carol Wilson (England) comments how “tears rolled down my cheek and I thought I’m never going to see anything like this again,” while for Italian Elena Schiavo it was “a fairytale…a fairytale for better or worse.” Acknowledging how male football organisers retained a simple perception of women, Anne Stengard from Denmark comments: “I can knit and I can use a chainsaw…but I don’t want to be put in a box.”
Through smart editing and use of recently uncovered, never-seen archive set alongside compelling contemporary interviews, the film revels in the excitement and passion and humour within this long-kept secret. Historian David Goldblatt is on-board to run through FIFA’s resistance to women playing football, but it is the energy of the footage that really drives the film, as teams make their way through the knock-out stages towards a final showdown between Denmark and Mexico…all in front of a vast and passionate local crowd.
Desperately sad, though, is how when they returned home many of the women saw their achievement ignored or belittled, and have had to watch patiently – and sometimes silently – from the sidelines before the women’s game finally could reach the front and back pages.
Executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams the film is also blessed with a striking 1970s soundtrack featuring female singer-songwriters including Carole King, Nancy Sinatra, Kiki Dee, Koko Taylor and Lara Saint Paul, while astutely placing the participants’ recollections within the context of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s through to present day. Copa 71 is an exhilarating glimpse into a moment in time that needs to be put back in the spotlight.
UK, 2023, 91mins
Dirs: Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
Production: New Black Films, Westbrook Studios, Dogwoof
International sales: Dogwoof Film Sales
Producers: Victoria Gregory, Jannat Gargi, Anna Godas
Scr: Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine, Victoria Gregory
Cinematography: Angela Neil, Alex Roa, Maggie Olkuska, Gabriel Pomeraniec, John Halliday, Tim Metzger
Editors: Arturo Calvete, Mark Roberts
Music: Rob Lord
With: Brandi Chastain, Nicole Mangas, Silvia Zaragoza, Carol Wilson, Elena Schiavo, Ann Stengard, Birte Kjems, Elvira Aracen, Elba Selva, Chris Lockwood, Alex Morgan
