Reporter Han Bing reported on 91,648 people, which is the record number of spectators at Camp Nou this season. But so many fans entered not to cheer for Xavi to coach, but also not to cheer for pique, Busquets, F. De Jong, Pedri and other new and old superstars, and the opponent was not Real Madrid, Bayern and other giants, but to watch Barca's women's Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg. More than 90,000 fans cheered on goals from Hennie Hermoso, Alessia Putyas and Aetana Bonmarty.
The Camp Nou stadium can accommodate 99,354 people, and at the end of March, the women's football team "National Derby" at home in the women's Champions League quarterfinals, Barca has set a world record for the number of spectators in women's football matches (91,553 people), this time again setting a new record. The blowout effect of the popularity of women's football in Spain is evident. Previously, the home stadium of the Barça women's football team was the Cruyff Stadium shared with Barca B, with a capacity of only 6,000 people. However, the crazy performance of the women's Champions League group stage in which they scored 24 goals in 6 games and conceded only 1 goal, coupled with the encounter with rivals Real Madrid in the first round of the knockout round, Barca decided to change the home stadium to the Camp Nou Stadium, which has a feat of breaking the audience record of women's football matches. The Barça women's football team also lived up to the expectations of the 90,000 spectators on the scene, winning five goals in both games and heading straight for the women's Champions League trophy.
In stark contrast to the avid pursuit of Barca women's football, Barca men's football team has been at a comprehensive disadvantage in attendance at Camp Nou this season. So far, none of the 21 home games has exceeded 90,000 spectators, and the highest national derby is only 86,422 people, and it is the only game with a crowd of more than 80,000! The last time barca men's football team attracted 90,000 spectators at the Camp Nou was the national derby against Real Madrid on December 18, 2019 (93,426). The Barça men's football team had just two home games in the 2019/20 season with more than 90,000 spectators, which is comparable to the Barça women's football team this season.
Since the 21st century, the development of women's football in the world can be described as a leap forward. Not only has Japan, North Korea and South Korea risen in East Asia, but the women's football teams of England, Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands, which have a weaker tradition in Europe, have benefited from the strong influence of the men's professional football leagues.
The 2019 Fifacé de France women's world cup has been decisive for the spurt of European women's football in recent years, attracting 1.12 billion viewers worldwide and less than 10,000 spectators in just two of the 36 group matches. The opener hosted by the Parc des Princes (45,600 people) hosted by Paris Saint-Germain, the quarter-finals between France and the United States, and the semi-finals and finals hosted by Lyon (which can accommodate 57,900 people) are almost all full, and only 4 of the 16 knockout matches have not reached 90%!
Today, the professional leagues of Spain, England, France and the Netherlands have flourished, while driving the level of their respective women's national teams to rise sharply. These four women's national teams are all outside the world rankings at the beginning of the 21st century, and all of them have entered the top 7 in recent years. With the support of high-level men's professional football clubs, Barca, Atletico, Lyon, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City women's football teams have become women's football powerhouses, so that the women's champions league is no longer monopolized by German and Swedish women's football clubs.
Barca's women's soccer team broke the 23-year record for spectators in women's soccer matches in March, which coincided with the 1999 Women's World Cup And the United States-China Final, when the Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles poured in 90,195 spectators. The team led by Sun Wen at that time was also the peak of The Chinese women's football team. Since the 21st century, China's women's football team has deteriorated, and the world ranking has fallen from 4th in 2003 to 16th today – even maintaining this ranking, thanks to the surprise of the women's football team winning the Asian Cup.
Due to the 1-3 defeat of the Chinese men's football team to Vietnam, the Chinese women's football team regained unprecedented public attention from the Asian Cup, and the traffic exploded in a short period of time. The Women's Super League has as many as 9 platforms live broadcasting, and also invited the super popular superstar Wang Meng, who became a hit at the Winter Olympics, to explain that the first round of new media ratings exceeded 200,000, and the TV station ratings surged by 30 times! But this blowout effect is due to the previous starting point is too low, although compared with last year's order of magnitude improvement, but compared with the European women's football team there is still a big gap. Even if the Women's Super League is put in the stadium, how many spectators can be attracted, I believe most people will have a basic judgment.
The Chinese women's football team has finally survived the "traffic dividend" brought by the Asian Cup, but to really shift this attention from the keyboard and mobile phone to the stadium, as Coach Shui Qingxia and Zhao Lina said before: The Chinese women's football team needs more real attention, not only from funds, but also from the real audience and the "women's football population". The latter two are the foundation of the european women's football movement in recent years, and the foundation of the revival of Chinese women's football.