A European record for the number of fans watching a women’s football match was broken in Spain on Wednesday as 48,121 people turned out to see Athletic Bilbao play Atletico Madrid.
The historic attendance at Bilbao’s San Mames stadium for the quarter-final of the Copa de la Reina comes six months before the start of this year’s Women’s World Cup in France.
‘Congratulations to all the fans who came to San Mames, we broke the European record for a women’s match,’ Bilbao posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) described women’s football as ‘unstoppable’, adding: ‘The rise of women’s football has arrived and the RFEF’s commitment to strengthening it has reached a new level.’
The governing body also pointed to a record crowd of 9,182 attending the friendly fixture between the Spanish women’s team and the US in Alicante earlier this month.
Spain have qualified for this summer’s Women’s World Cup, which starts on 7 June, and have been drawn in Group B with Germany, China and South Africa.
