2 in 5 expect Lionesses to bring football home again – though an equal share say men’s team has shown better skills in the past two years

• 3 in 5 (62%) football fans intend to follow the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup closely
• This is much higher than the share who said they closely followed the previous Women’s World Cup in 2019 (48%), and slightly lower than the share who said they followed the 2022 Women’s Euro tournament closely (66%)
• Lionesses are the favourites to win the World Cup among British football fans (42%), followed by the Americans (19%)
• Half of football fans in England (53%) say the Lionesses have had better results on the pitch than the men’s team in the past two years, while a quarter (24%) say the men have done better
• Even so, 2 in 5 English fans (42%) still say the England men’s team has shown better football skills, with the rest split between saying the women’s team has shown better skills (26%) and that they’ve been equally successful (26%)

Polling by Ipsos ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup shows that 42% of British football fans expect the Lionesses to replicate last summer’s success and come out on top. The next most popular contender is the Americans, who are expected to win by 19% of fans.

3 in 5 football fans (62%) plan to follow the tournament closely. This represents a 14ppt increase than the share who said they closely followed the previous Women’s World Cup in 2019 (48%), and a slight decrease from the share who said they closely followed the 2022 Women’s Euro tournament closely (66%). 

Following the Lionesses’ success at the 2022 Women’s Euro tournament, 1 in 2 (53%) football fans in England say the women’s team has had better results on the pitch, compared to 1 in 4 (24%) who said the same of the men’s team. However, even so, only 1 in 4 (26%) feel the women’s team have shown better skill, while 42% say the men’s team has shown better football skills. This sentiment is much more prevalent amongst male football fans. 

Off the pitch, more than 2 in 5 (43%) think the women’s team have had a greater social impact, compared to 3 in 10 (31%) who say the same of the men’s team. 1 in 5 (19%) think the women’s team and men’s team have had equal impact. 

Women’s World Cup sponsorship offers potential opportunity for brands

A quarter of the British public (26%) – including both fans and non-fans of football – said that finding out a brand they were aware of was a sponsor of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup would make them view the brand more favourably. This rises to 37% of football fans who said the same. However, the majority of both groups (65% of the public and 54% of football fans) said it would make no impact on how favourably they viewed the brand.

Jordana Moser, Associate Research Director at Ipsos, said:

Ahead of what’s sure to be an exciting World Cup campaign, it’s great to see that the British public’s enthusiasm toward women’s football has held from last summer, with most football fans anticipating following the tournament closely and the Lionesses favoured by football fans to bring home another trophy. However, that fans in England are still so much more likely to say the men’s team has demonstrated greater skill relative to the women’s team shows that there’s still much ground to be gained around how the public perceive women’s athletic achievements. We look forward to cheering on our Lionesses throughout this summer’s tournament!

Technical note: 

Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 2,179 adults aged 16+ in Great Britain. Interviews took place on the online Omnibus between 23rd-26th June 2023, including 1,067 who identify as football fans. Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of errors.