Featured image credit: Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash
Arsenal set a new record attendance for a Women’s Super League match on Saturday as 47,367 fans watched its derby match against Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium.
The match, which Arsenal won 4-0, surpassed the previous attendance record of 38,262, which was set when the two teams met at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium during the first ever ‘Women’s Football Weekend’ campaign in November 2019.
Elsewhere in the WSL, a crowd of 27,574 watched the derby match between Liverpool and Everton at Anfield yesterday (Sunday). It marked the highest attendance for a WSL match at the stadium.
Kelly Simmons, the FA’s director for the women’s professional game in England, said: “After a stunning summer that saw packed-out stadiums to watch the Lionesses during the UEFA Women’s Euro, we were really confident that we’d see a new record attendance early on in this season’s Barclays Women’s Super League.
“The atmosphere at The Emirates was absolutely incredible, and seeing 47,367 fans in the stadium shows just how much the women’s game has grown. I am delighted that we have seen such big interest in the league since the start of the season, which is great credit to the clubs. I hope this momentum can continue throughout the whole campaign and I encourage anyone to come along to a Barclays WSL match and be a part of this exciting league.”
It has been a record-breaking year for women’s football attendance, with 87,192 fans turning out to watch England’s 2-1 win over Germany in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 final at Wembley back in July.
The attendance set a record across the men’s and women’s editions of the European Championship. Before the start of the tournament, the record crowd for a Women’s Euro match was 43,301, but this was beaten on the opening day as 68,871 fans watched England’s 1-0 win against Austria at Old Trafford.
The cumulative Women’s Euro attendance record was broken with 15 matches still to play. After the final, UEFA confirmed the tournament’s total attendance was 574,975, with an average crowd of 18,544 per game.
Women’s football attendance records have also been broken overseas this year. Earlier this month, San Diego Wave set a new record for the National Women’s Soccer League as 32,000 watched the team’s 1-0 win over Angel City FC.
The 32,000 attendance was the largest in the 10-year history of the NWSL, surpassing the previous record of 25,218, which was set in 2019 when the Portland Thorns hosted the North Carolina Courage at Providence Park.
In April, Barcelona set a new record attendance for women’s football after 91,648 fans watched its Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg at the Camp Nou.
The figure surpassed the previous record of 91,553, which Barcelona set in March for the El Clasico match against Real Madrid. Before that, the record attendance for a women’s football match was 90,185, which was set back in 1999 during the FIFA Women’s World Cup final between the US and China at the Rose Bowl.
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