Copa 71 – Watch the trailer for the documentary about the 1971 Women’s Football World Cup

Women’s Football. World Cup in Mexico 1971
The championship of the Danish girls. Lis lene Nielsen with the trophy after the final match against Mexico.

Told by the pioneering women who participated in it and built from archive unseen for fifty years, this is the extraordinary story of the 1971 Women’s Football World Cup, a tournament witnessed by record crowds that has been written out of sporting history – until now.

Dogwoof has sent over the new trailer and artwork for Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine’s (Le Mans: Racing is Everything, Sachin: A Billion Dreams) COPA 71.

It is August 1971. Football teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark, and Italy have gathered at Mexico City’s sun-drenched Azteca Stadium. The scale of the tournament is monumental: lavish sponsorship, extensive TV coverage, merchandise on every street corner, and crowds of over 100,000 roaring fans turn this historic stadium into a cauldron of noise match after match. A fawning media treat the players like rock stars. The atmosphere is reminiscent of the greatest moments in international football history. But this is a tournament unlike anything that’s happened before. The players on the pitch are all women. And it’s likely you’ve never even heard of it. This is Copa ‘71, the pioneering unofficial Women’s World Cup. Dismissed by both the governing body and domestic football associations around the world, this event had been sidelined in history. Until now.

An astonishing film that sheds light on the history of women’s sport and the injustices women were subjected to, COPA 71 will be in UK & Irish cinemas from 8th March 2024.