The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Adam Beissel is Associate Professor of Sport Leadership & Management at Miami University, Ohio, USA. Adam’s research and scholarship interrogates the political economy of international sport events and the geopolitics of sport. In addition to his research involving the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, he’s currently working on a research project exploring the geopolitics of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Twitter: @extrabeisshit Verity Postlethwaite is Doctoral Prize Fellow at Loughborough University, UK, and Research Associate in the Japan Research Centre at SOAS. Verity’s main interests focus on how sport events and other cultural entities have been used in local, national, and international contexts to influence the governing of society, in particular around notions of inclusivity. Her recent research focuses on important aspects of gender, sustainability, and disability. Twitter: @verity_pos Andrew Grainger is Senior Lecturer in the sociology of sport and sport development in the School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition at Massey University, New Zealand. Andy’s research and teaching focus primarily on the globalisation of sport and the impact of neoliberal ideology and practices on local physical cultural meanings and practices. His current research explores the intersections of sport policy, sport diplomacy, and women’s football in Aotearoa New Zealand. Twitter: @Andy_D_Grainger Julie E. Brice is Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University Fullerton, USA. Julie’s research and scholarship focuses on the socio-cultural and political forces that impact women’s experiences of their moving bodies and across women’s sports, more broadly. This includes explorations into the activewear phenomenon and women’s fitness, New Zealand women’s experiences of wellbeing and sport, and promotional messaging of the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT). Twitter: @jubrice5

Introduction: The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Politics, representation, and management

ADAM BEISSEL, JULIE E. BRICE, VERITY POSTLETHWAITE, AND ANDREW GRAINGER

The hosts of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

VERITY POSTLETHWAITE, JULIE E. BRICE, ANDREW GRAINGER, AND ADAM BEISSEL

PART I

Contextualizing the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

1 Contextualising and chronicling the gender equality provisions in FIFA’s 2016 governance reforms: Situating the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023

CATHERINE ORDWAY AND MOYA DODD

2 The precarious labour of women footballers: A shadow in the light of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

TARLAN CHAHARDOVALI

3 Tracing FIFA’s “flagship women’s competition” and its use of legacy from 1991 to 2023

VERITY POSTLETHWAITE, ADAM BEISSEL, JULIE E. BRICE, AND ANDREW GRAINGER

PART II

The politics of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup bidding

4 FIFA 2.0, FIFA Women’s Football Strategy, and the bid process for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: A new hope

ADAM BEISSEL, VERITY POSTLETHWAITE, ANDREW GRAINGER, AND JULIE E. BRICE

5 As One 2023, conjunctural politics, and commercialisation of gender equality and women’s empowerment: The force awakens

ADAM BEISSEL, VERITY POSTLETHWAITE, ANDREW GRAINGER, AND JULIE E. BRICE

6 FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and Sports Diplomacy at a Confederation Level: The galactic alliance

GAVIN PRICE AND VERITY POSTLETHWAITE

PART III

Australia/New Zealand bid marketing, media, and representation

7 Gender, branding, and the Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand As One 2023 social media strategy: Winning the Women’s World Cup

ADAM BEISSEL, VERITY POSTLETHWAITE, AND ANDREW GRAINGER

8 A content analysis of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand online news media coverage of the bid process for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: We did it

ELEANOR CRABILL, CALLIE MADDOX, AND ADAM BEISSEL

9 The marketing and branding of Indigeneity in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: Marketing Māori

BEVAN ERUETI, ANDREW GRAINGER, AND HILLARY J. HALDANE

PART IV

Policy and management in the lead-up to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

10 An analysis of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leverage strategies for the Women’s Cricket, Rugby, and Football World Cups

JULIE E. BRICE, ANDREW GRAINGER, ADAM BEISSEL, AND VERITY POSTLETHWAITE

11 The 2023 Football Women’s World Cup and Australia’s sporting ambitions: A Decade of Green and Gold

ANDREW GRAINGER, ADAM BEISSEL, ASHLEIGH-JANE THOMPSON, AND JULIE E. BRICE

12 The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and football development in Oceania: Beyond Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

CALLIE BATTS MADDOX AND ELEANOR CRABILL