Women's World Cup to give away 20,000 tickets for free as FIFA admits sales have flopped

20,000 free tickets to the Women's World Cup in New Zealand will be given away as FIFA, the international governing body for the sport of soccer, has said that it failed to attract fans in the country.

The 2023 competition, held in Australia and New Zealand, has faced concerns about the pace of ticket sales in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Dunedin, New Zealand, according to ESPN.

While international competitions hosted in multiple countries concurrently is not a new idea — the men's World Cup did this in 2002 and will again in 2026 — the smaller Kiwi nation has struggled compared to the Aussies, who have sold the majority of the 1 million tickets purchased.

The Australian women's team is one of the top teams in the tournament, however.

FIFA chief women's football officer Sarai Bareman blamed the lack of the sport's popularity in New Zealand, because the women's team, the Football Ferns, haven't won a match in their last five World Cup appearances.

New Zealand accounting software company Xero, the tournament's official partner, is offering 5,000 free tickets for games in the country's host cities.

As well, the nation's former prime minister and noted socialist Jacinda Ardern took to her social media accounts to try to promote the ticket sales.

"I’m so excited that New Zealand is hosting such a massive event full of amazing teams and athletes from around the world. There are still tickets to some games across New Zealand," she wrote on Instagram.

France's team made an intricate promotion ahead of the matches, showcasing the players' talent by digitally swapping out female players for men in a marketing video. The video shows exciting soccer plays featuring the French men's national team, only to reveal that the skilled movements were actually made by women.

In the days leading up to the World Cup finals, the U.S. women's most famous activist, Megan Rapinoe, made a series of controversial statements, including that she plans to retire after the event.

Rapinoe said that she would welcome a transgender player on the national team, saying that she sees "trans women as real women." She also blamed comedian Dave Chappelle for violence against transgender people with the statement "Chappelle making jokes about trans people directly leads to violence, whether it’s verbal or otherwise, against trans people."

U.S. soccer club OL Reign has both Rapinoe and a woman who claims to be non-binary on the team. Rebecca Quinn, who prefers to go only by "Quinn," is the only player on the team who lists her pronouns as "they/them."

New Zealand's first game of the competition is in Auckland on July 20, 2023.

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