Boots, shirts and a poi from New Zealand are among the exhibits added to an international football museum to help capture the history of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Zurich-based FIFA Museum, the home of international football history, heritage, and culture, has acquired nearly 400 objects from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand.
Following these acquisitions, the museum now has one of the most significant international collections of women’s football objects in the world.
Some of these new objects have been unveiled as part of the newly set up showcase, opened to the public in December 2023.
Main photo: Exhibits from the FIFA Women’s World Cup are on display in Switzerland. Photo credit: FIFA.
The FIFA Museum has been actively collecting at the men’s and women’s World Cup tournaments since 2018, capturing football history as it is being made.
The museum’s Exhibition and Heritage Team were responsible for bringing together boots, match balls, jerseys, tactical notes, and more from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, identifying significant objects that would tell the story of this landmark tournament to future generations.
The tournament featured historic firsts and new milestones for the women’s game, as well as notable debuts and last matches from beloved teams and legendary players.
It was the best-attended and most-viewed FIFA Women’s World Cup in the tournament’s history, with just under 2 million fans attending the 64 games and approximately 2 billion viewers watching from home, cementing the FIFA Women’s World Cup as a global cultural phenomenon.
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During the tournament, the FIFA Museum also presented a special exhibition, Calling the Shots: Faces of Women’s Football, at the FIFA Fan Festival in Sydney/Gadigal, shining a light on the players, organisers, grassroots activists, coaches, and more that have made women’s football what it is today.
Upon seeing the new showcase for the first time, FIFA Chief Women’s Football Officer Sarai Bareman said:
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will for sure go down in history as the game-changing moment that took women’s football to the next level. To see it immortalized in a showcase at the FIFA Museum, where fans can come and remember this landmark tournament is amazing. What a beautiful way to wrap up this year of women’s football.”
Objects exhibited in the new showcase:
Australia
Dhaal galk, or clapsticks, from the Kulin Nations people of south-central Victoria. They were used before kick-offs in Australia by First Nations peoples who welcomed fans and teams with Welcome to Country ceremonies.
New Zealand
A poi (Māori for ball on a string), distributed at stadiums in Aotearoa to honour wāhine (women) and encourage fans to engage with Māori culture. Fans twirled them to support their teams.
England
Shorts worn by England captain Millie Bright, who led the Lionesses to the FIFA Women’s World CupTM final for the first time.
Spain
Champion Jenni Hermoso’s match-issued shirt for the final against England.
Sweden
Penalty shoot-out analysis on goalkeeper Zećira Mušović’s water bottle, showing her plans for each opponent in the penalty shoot-out against the USA.
Zambia
Barbra Banda’s boots, worn as she scored the 1000th goal in the history of the FIFA Women’s World CupTM, a penalty against Costa Rica.
Other highlight objects collected at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 include:
Canada
The all-time leading goal scorer in international football, Christine Sinclair’s boots from the Canada-Australia match.
Colombia
A home shirt worn by one of football’s biggest talents, Linda Caicedo.
France
Jersey worn by French Captain Wendie Renard, during France-Jamaica match in which Jamaica won their first ever point at a FIFA Women’s World CupTM.
Germany
Shorts worn by Germany’s Captain, Alexandra Popp in which she scored two goals against Morocco.
Korea Republic
Boots worn by Casey Phair, who celebrated her 16th birthday only 26 days before the start of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, making her the youngest player to ever partake in the tournament.
United States
Jersey prepared for Megan Rapinoe, who has since retired, making this tournament as her final FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Referees
Yoshimi Yamashita’s headset, who made history as the first referee to announce a VAR decision live in the stadium, in the tournament’s opening match between New Zealand and Norway.
The FIFA Museum has an ongoing commitment to increasing the representation of women’s football within its collection and exhibitions.
As part of this process, the museum will redevelop the World Cup Gallery in its permanent exhibition in early 2024.
The World Cup Gallery houses the museum’s World Cup showcases, featuring a highlight selection of objects from each tournament, stretching back all the way to the inaugural men’s tournament in 1930.
The redevelopment will expand the space, ensuring that the future FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments will have equal display space to the men’s, as the museum continues its active collecting, aspiring to raise the largest collection of women’s football-related objects worldwide.
About the FIFA Museum
The FIFA Museum is a landmark museum in Zurich with one of the most comprehensive collections of objects dedicated to international football.
Celebrating the rich heritage of the beautiful game, the FIFA Museum tells the story of how world football’s governing body has developed association football globally and established it as the world’s undisputed number one sport.
The FIFA Museum is committed to sharing the magic of football through a wide range of attractions, audiovisual experiences, and thought-provoking exhibitions.
Visit the museum online
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Acknowledgement
This story has been supplied by FIFA.
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