Shane Te Pou: Co-hosting Football World Cup with Australia showed world we can shine

The success of the Fifa Women's World Cup in New Zealand showed women’s sport is being treated on equal footing with men’s sport. Photo / Getty Images

Wasn’t the women’s Football World Cup a huge success? Along with last year’s women’s Rugby World Cup, it’s been a wonderful way for Aotearoa New Zealand to return to the world stage after the pandemic.

We all know that women’s sport has played second fiddle to men’s sport for a long time, overlooked and undervalued. But, now, it feels like, finally, women’s sport is being treated on equal footing with men’s sport in this country.

With a global audience of over two billion people, women’s Football World Cup is probably the biggest international sporting event we’ve ever hosted in terms of its reach around the world. Fans came from all over – countries like Spain, the Philippines, and Norway – who have probably never had reason to visit Aotearoa for a sporting event before.

All those visitors, along with huge local support, especially from our immigrant communities, brought an energy to our stadiums that you rarely see here (except when Tonga or Samoa are playing). While men’s football has a problematic relationship with hooliganism, that’s not an issue with the women’s game – it was just people having a good time. The excitement was infectious and rubbed off on those of us who don’t usually follow football as well. That’s going to have positive results for the future of the sport in this country.

The use of Māori and Aboriginal names for the host cities, alongside their English ones, was also a nice touch that centred the indigenous peoples of the host countries. It shows a maturity on both sides of the Tasman that indigenous names could be used alongside English ones and no one serious has kicked up a stink about it.

I think seeing women sports stars being at the centre of such a huge event is important for both men and women in Aotearoa. It shows that women’s achievements are just as important as men’s. It’s important to me as a dad that both my daughter and my son see that.

It showed that sport doesn’t have to be stained with toxic masculinity. Seeing players comforting their rivals after a loss and with their kids after the matches reminded us that sports stars are also people with families, and that their sport is just part of who they are. That inclusive approach will surely be an inspiration for more girls to pursue sports both at school and professionally - and that’s got to be a good thing. Let’s see more of that with our male sports stars, too.

In a world where it seems sport is getting increasingly politicised, with complaints about teams that move with the times going “woke” and anti-trans activists making demands for intrusive examinations of all women sports players, it was great to see a tournament that was about the game and about the players, not about politics.

An event of this scale doesn’t go off without a hitch without hard work behind the scenes. New Zealand Football and the Government have done us proud, as have the local communities that hosted the teams. Government support included a $19 million investment towards upgrades at 30 sporting facilities across the country. Communities made the teams feel welcome (even Palmerston North).

Co-hosting major international tournaments with Australia has proven to be a successful approach. Hopefully, it can be used with more sports in the future. Little Aotearoa is always going to struggle to host such big events by itself – even Australia would struggle to do it alone. But, together, we have shown we can put on a spectacle for the whole world.

We’ve been running ourselves down a lot as a country recently. I don’t know if it’s post-pandemic blues, inflation, or the relentless negativity of the election campaign – but we’ve got ourselves into a funk where we are constantly highlighting what’s wrong and ignoring what’s right. The World Cup was a great chance to see ourselves through others’ eyes. A reminder that we’re a beautiful, prosperous country that people from all over the world are excited to visit.

So, thanks to all involved for a great event, for being an inspiration to girls and boys, and for giving Aotearoa the chance to shine.

Shane Te Pou (Ngāi Tūhoe) is a commentator, blogger and former Labour Party activist.