Here’s a great sports film that just launched and is set to be one of 2024’s top documentaries.

Copa 71 is the story of the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup. Held in Mexico, the event was a pretty big success… but was then airbrushed from history by a bunch of angry blokes running FIFA. They basically banned women’s football due to it.

Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine double direct this one, which explores the individuals involved in the event, their memories, and what could have been. ⚽

The Forgotten (Unofficial) Women’s World Cup at Copa 71

Now, we don’t follow football (“soccer” to North Americans). But this documentary piqued our interest and we got it watched at Horwich cinema, Bolton of Greater Manchester.

Thematically, it’s similar to the likes of the excellent documentary the Queen of Speed (about rally ace Michelle Mouton).

Except Copa 71 has even more problematic issues of sexism than presented there.

It may seem ridiculous now, but the Football Association (FA) banned women from playing football between 1921 and 1970.

For modern sensibilities, that’s just bizarre and makes no sense.

But the reasons provided in the documentary are that men thought women would injure or kill themselves if they played the sport, as their feeble bodies just couldn’t hack it (watch the documentary, that’s the genuine reason).

In other words, total ignorance and discrimination.

Copa 71 highlights the event was a big lost opportunity in the name of sporting (and, to a wider extent, social) equality. All because a bunch of miserable, sexist blokes couldn’t hack it and so blocked women’s football.

The Build-Up to the First Women’s World Cup

Despite the ban we mentioned above, women did continue to play football between 1921 and 1970. It was heavily frowned upon, but there was the likes of the Women’s European Championship in 1957.

It depended on the jurisdiction. For example, in Brazil it was essentially illegal for women to play football between 1941 and 1979.

Despite all that, there was a previous attempt to hold  Women’s World Cup in 1970.

What stands Copa 71 out is this:

• The enormous crowds you can see above.
• FIFA airbrushing the event out of history.

In fact, FIFA moved to block the 1971 event in Mexico City and banned the six teams (Argentina, Denmark, Mexico, England, France, and Italy) from playing at almost every single ground in the region.

However, and idiotically by them, they didn’t have control over two of the most enormous stadiums in Mexico, including the iconic Azteca Stadium.

To pack out the stadiums the event was then marketed extensively, so the result was the two stadiums packed out with fans of up to 110,000 (still the all-time record attendance for a woman’s game).

With everything set up, the matches began!

Copa 71 excels here, as it presents that matches in exciting fashion. We’re not football fans, but it’s an accessible documentary even if you don’t like this sort of stuff.

Not least as the engaging former female plays make for charismatic interviewees as they recount their memories of the event.

Of course, there’s the usual stuff about who was the hottest and prettiest team, but away from that the football stuff is great.

Not least when the Italy VS Mexico semi-final commences (FYI England crash out of the tournament in disastrous fashion). The fiery Elena Schiavo, considered the best female player in the world, is mad and it’s great.

The game gets heavily contentious, was probably rigged to get Mexico in the final, an even has a punch up in it! Hurray!

Such stories are recounted with a lot of charm and energy and the players clearly had a blast out there in 1971. It’s one of the enjoyable sides to Copa 71, listening to their reminiscing about the fun times, and heat and humidity, in Mexico.

The Critical Reaction to Copa 71 (plus, our verdict!)

Some critics have handed the documentary 5/5. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian was one, although he’s a notorious contrarian so it’s quite difficult to take any of his reviews seriously.

We don’t think it’s a 5/5 film, but it’s very good.

Criticisms wise, a lot of the in-game footage features snippets of commentary explaining the players are playing excellent football. Over and over. That dragged a bit for us, as you can see it visually on the screen.

No need to hammer that bit home.

Also, some of the points made at the end of the film fall a bit flat. One of the women’s England team members says they “paved the way” for women’s football as it is now.

But they didn’t, as the event was airbrushed from history. No one really knew about it until the footage resurfaced 50 years later.

We think the message of the film should be more about the lost potential.

How discrimination (rampant bigotry, let’s not skip around that) blocked what could have been ongoing Women’s World Cups from 1971 onward. Instead… nothing! Just bans and ignorance.

In that sense, the dangers of discrimination.

Copa 71 should be held up to people who think this “woke” nonsense is a great threat to freedom of speech and personal liberty. This documentary is a demonstration of “the good old days.”

And it was shit and highly discriminatory. Things are much better now and documentaries like this remind us of that.

The Production of Copa 71

The executive producers for the documentary are Serena and Venus Williams. Yes, the two tennis legends. The former also provides narration.

Knowledge of the event has been around for a while now as the footage emerged back online a few years ago. But with those huge packed stadiums and incredible archive footage, it makes for a brilliant topic for a documentary.

So, yes, Copa 71 is still out in cinemas right now (the only place where you can currently watch it).

It’s a small film but has managed to garner a pretty decent amount of press coverage and a wide distribution. Go and see it if you’re intrigued! It sends an important message and is an entertaining documentary.