England reach World Cup Final
An England sporting side are in a World Cup final on Sunday in London. It’s obviously not the men’s football side (yet…) and its certainly not the men’s cricket team. Rather England women face Australia’s women at Lords in the T20 World Cup Final.
The Men’s Football World Cup kicked off in Mexico City on 11th June. Mexico beat South Africa. The game was unremarkable aside from three red cards but the atmosphere was fitting for such an occasion. It was however, as not reported on ITV, for the few not the many. Standard tickets cost £750 which is the average monthly wage in Mexico.
The tournament might well have been better if it had been played in Mexico and Canada only but as it is the majority of the 104 games will be played in the US.
As the Round of 32 has been reached its become clear that there are two World Cups. Trump has stayed away so far. Harassment of players and officials, Iran being a prime example, has been a deplorable feature. On the other hand as Simon Kuper argues in the Financial Times (27th June) there is also a fan led World Cup, with supporters of teams in the stadiums- Scotland being an obvious UK focused example- but also with watch parties and big screens.
The Men’s Football World Cup is of course a global event with a global audience and wall to wall media coverage.
Meanwhile another World Cup is reaching its conclusion as England Women beat the current holders New Zealand at The Oval on 27th June and South Africa in the semi-final on Thursday 2nd July as part of the T20 series that ends with a Final at Lords on July 5th. There were 21,128 spectators at the Oval on Thursday evening.
Media coverage is of course minimal. The Times manages a column by Elizabeth Ammon. You’d expect an England team reaching a World Cup Final to make the front pages. It seems unfortunately unlikely.
Yet the tournament has had global reach with India playing Pakistan a game which usually attracts the biggest screen based global audience of any sport.
The whole thing is screened on Sky and on ICC.TV and radio commentary is on Radio 5 via Test Match Special.
A World Cup without the machismo
Kmflett's Blog 
Leave a comment