Women’s football in Portugal on the up and up as excitement grows ahead of World Cup debut | OneFootball

There will come a time when women’s football in Portugal will stop smashing through new barriers at breakneck speed. That time has not yet arrived.

Investment by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) and many of Portugal’s biggest clubs has led to successive landmarks being reached in recent years, both on and off the pitch.

In 2017 the Seleção qualified for their first major tournament, the European Championship, repeating the feat in 2022.

This year, a stoppage time penalty against Cameroon in the intercontinental playoff finally booked Portugal’s place on the biggest stage of them all, successfully ending an arduous qualification campaign that involved 13 matches. No other nation had to play so many games to reach the tournament.

Off the pitch, the popularity of the women’s version of the beautiful game continues to snowball in the country. In March, an attendance record was set for a women’s football match as 27,211 spectators filed into Benfica’s Estadio da Luz to watch the Lisbon derby against Sporting.

Earlier this month, the record for an international match was broken as 20,123 filled Boavista’s Estádio do Bessa to capacity to watch Portugal’s final World Cup preparation friendly against Ukraine.

The marketing drive towards increasing participation at grassroots level continues to be one of the major goals of the FPF, as exemplified in the promotional video ahead of Portugal’s participation in the World Cup. As much as glorifying the players who carried the Seleção to the tournament, the video entitled “The First of Many” is clearly aligned with the strategy of persuading more girls to take up the game.

Despite the huge strides made in recent years, Portugal’s pool of female footballers remains relatively small compared to other countries. Approximately 200,000 footballers (football and futsal) are registered by the FPF, but only around 15,000 are female.

It is an issue that has been identified as problematic for a long time. Speaking to PortuGOAL in 2017, current Sporting coach Mariana Cabral explained the women’s football landscape in Portugal, while pointing out the relative dearth of players.

“Women’s football is growing more and more, year on year... It began to develop more when Fernando Gomes became FPF president and he promised – and kept his promise – to invest in promoting women’s football.

“What’s essential right now is to increase the number of girls and women playing the game, as the numbers are still very low compared to other countries.”

Five years on and there is no doubt that women’s football in Portugal has continued on its upward trajectory. Qualifying for the World Cup and achieving a FIFA ranking of No. 21 would have been inconceivable just a decade ago.

Public appeal to FC Porto

However, to stay on right path, many of the biggest protagonists within the game keep banging home the same message. All avenues to grow the game in the country must be profited from.

This quest to keep the ball rolling was further demonstrated last week as Portugal’s star player Jéssica Silva made a public appeal to FC Porto to join the Liga BPI, Portugal’s professional women’s football league. Porto are the only major club in the country who do not have a women’s team.

Speaking to the sports daily O Jogo, Jéssica, who plays for Benfica, said: “FC Porto should not be missing from women’s football. The city has so many players. I appeal to the club to please think about this because female football needs everyone.”

Morale high ahead of World Cup bow

The immediate priority for Jéssica and her teammates, however, is to prepare as well as possible for their World Cup debut match against Netherlands on Sunday. A positive performance in New Zealand and Australia is sure to give the sport another notable fillip.

The squad continues to brim with confidence and excitement. Asked to name her favourites to win the World Cup in an RTP interview, centre-back Carole Costa immediately quipped: “You mean apart from us!?”

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