The permanent collection — plus this season's live anomalies at the end.
1 record found
FIFA under president Stanley Rous viewed FIEFF's Copa 71 success as a direct threat to its monopoly. Rous issued a threat: any Mexican club, referee, or regional association providing facilities would be permanently banned from official football. Organisers bypassed this by negotiating leases with television conglomerates that owned the Azteca and Jalisco stadiums. FIFA's strategy backfired — instead of small venues, matches were played in the Azteca and Jalisco stadiums. Medical gaslighting was used to justify bans: prominent doctors published peer-reviewed articles claiming football caused irreversible damage to women's ovaries and breasts. The English FA banned women from FA-affiliated grounds from 1921-1970, declaring the game 'quite unsuitable for females'. In Italy and Brazil, playing football was legally criminalised for women for several decades. The Danish FA chair declared the DBU 'cannot and will not take women's football seriously'. The 2023 documentary Copa 71, directed by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine and executive produced by Serena and Venus Williams, recovered pristine 16mm and 35mm reels from uncatalogued boxes in Mexican TV network archives. Key players in the story: Carol Wilson (England captain, RAF physical education instructor), Silvia Zaragoza (Mexico forward, played street football in secret, beaten by her father if caught), Elena Schiavo (Italy midfielder, widely considered best player in the world in 1971), Elba Selva (Argentina, scored four goals against England), Gill Sayell (England, disguised herself as a boy named Billy to play in local leagues), Nicole Mangas (France, played for Stade de Reims women's section).
