08/09/2023 - The documentary by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine tells the inspiring, yet incomplete, story of the forgotten unofficial women's football world cup

Coming on the heels of another extremely popular FIFA Women's World Cup, the documentary Copa 71 by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine has just world-premiered at Toronto, opening its TIFF Docs section. The film tells the story of the unofficial competition that took place in Mexico in 1971, which, despite pulling in huge crowds and attracting media coverage, has since been sidelined and forgotten.

It is a high-profile investigative documentary comprising interviews and archive footage, with an activist kick and an inspirational tone that will certainly help it find exposure, but it leaves quite a lot to be desired. It tracks the six teams – England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark and Italy – that gathered in Mexico against a backdrop that counterpoints the advancement of women's rights that followed the 1960s cultural revolution with the regressive, male-centric world of football at the time.

After the opening involving two-time World Cup winner Brandi Chastain, who admits she's never heard of the event, and a brief voice-over introduction from executive producer Serena Williams, we meet several women who took part in the championship. These include Italy's Elena Schiavo, widely considered the best player in the world at the time; Ann Stengard and Birte Kjems, who went on to win the cup for Denmark; England captain Carol Wilson; and Mexico star Silvia Zaragoza. Their testimonies confirm that when they were young, football, at the very least, was simply not a thing women did, if it wasn't directly frowned upon.

Historian David Goldblatt explains this is not how it started, with colourised archive footage from early 20th-century England proving women played football at the time – and there was actual enthusiasm around it. But in the 1920s, doctors started publishing articles about how football was bad for women's health – particularly their ovaries and wombs. This led to the outright banning of the practice, and in Italy and Brazil, it was made illegal.

FIFA, which still doesn't recognise the 1971 event despite boasting about the sport's exploding popularity, saw women's football as "immoral and indecent". It was a matter of power and control, and in preparation for the Mexico tournament, it threatened the local football federation with expulsion, forcing the cup to take place in two of Mexico's biggest stadiums, which were seemingly not under its auspices – though a later segment contradicts this.

The film follows the tournament in detail, with all the excitement the games brought and the delight of the players, who were welcomed like rock stars. It is inspiring that it took place at all, but there is oddly little information on who, in fact, organised it. We learn that a group of Mexican entrepreneurs saw it as a business opportunity following the extremely successful men's World Cup the year prior, but we never find out who they were. There is just a grainy, black-and-white photo of men in suits gathered around a table.

The doc claims that the media coverage was extensive, but we only have footage from the games in Spanish, and headlines are presented as animations, with just a few actual newspaper clippings. For the past 50 years, the footage was "hidden", the film says, but it offers no testimony or proof, instead relying on our awareness of any women's rights advancement facing a backlash.

The crowds in the stadiums and photos from the teams’ arrivals confirm it was a dazzling event, and one could argue that the film celebrates women instead of focusing on the toxic details, but for an investigative documentary that required copious research, these omissions dampen the effect and inspiration it aims to bring to the audience.

Copa 71 is a co-production between the UK's New Black Films and Dogwoof, which also has the international rights, and US company Westbrook Studios.