“We exist. Don’t forget or overlook us.”: queering the legacies of the 2023 Women’s FIFA World Cup

Purpose The FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) 2023 was co-hosted by Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand and was the first WWC to require legacy planning to develop women’s football. We examine the relevance of the legacy plans for an important fan segment within football: LGBTQ+ self-identifying women and non-binary fans. We also sought to explore how a queer perspective might inform the future of football through WWC legacies. Design/methodology/approach We engage with queer theory to de-stabilise legacy norms, placing women and non-binary LGBTQ + at the centre of knowledge production. We distributed a mixed-method survey to fans at the WWC 2023. In keeping with our queer approach, we challenged many of the norms of this method. Findings The respondents were largely unaware of the legacy documents. The respondents identified support for football’s inclusive ethos but argued that more could be done to celebrate LGBTQ + athletes and supporters; they envisaged a future of football that would be inclusive of intersectional identities; and they imagined queer visibility through the use of language and symbols by FIFA, national and local organisations. Originality/value This paper contributes a unique, queer analysis of major sport event legacy promises to advance sport management knowledge of diverse fans. The richness of the findings shows the breadth and depth of possibility for alternative, queered futures in football.