FIFA Women's World Cup

 

The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association soccer competition which is played by women's national teams of the member clubs of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) which is the governing body of international football. The tournament has been played every four years and every year following when there is a FIFA World Cup since 1991 in the year that the first event, which was then referred to as"the FIFA Women's World Championship, was held in China. In the current format the national teams compete for 23 slots during the qualification phase for three years. The team representing the host nation is automatically assigned in the slot 24. The tournament itself, sometimes referred to as"the World Cup Finals, is played at venues in that host nation(s) during a period of approximately one month.

In the eight FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments have been won by four teams from the national team. They are the United States have won four times and are the current champions , having won it this year's tournament in France. Other winners are Germany with two titles and Japan along with Norway with a single title each.

Six countries have been host to this year's Women's World Cup. China along with the United States have each hosted the event twice, while Canada, France, Germany and Sweden have held it at least once.

History

The first time there was an Women's World Cup dates back to the year 1970 when the first international tournament being held in Italy in July of 1970. The tournament was followed by an non-official event the following year in Mexico and Denmark was awarded the title following winning against Mexico during the championship. In the late 1980s, the Mundialito was played in Italy in four different editions, and both Italy and England winning two titles.

A number of countries lifted their bans on women's soccer in the 1970s, which led to the creation of new teams all over Europe in Europe and North America. Following the first women's international tournaments were played within Asia in 1975, and in Europe during 1984. Ellen Wille declared that she would like to see more performance by the FIFA Congress in promoting the women's sport. The first time this was done was in 1988 with the help of an invitational tournament held in China to see if a world-wide women's World Cup was feasible. Twelve national teams were involved in the tournament - four teams from UEFA and three from AFC and two from CONCACAF and one of CONMEBOL, CAF and OFC. After the first match that kicked off the event with China with Canada was watched by 45,000 fans The tournament was judged successful, with attendance averaged at 20000. Norway which was in the position of European champion, beat Sweden by a score of 1-0 in the final. Brazil was third after winning against hosts in an infamous penalty shootout. The event was considered successful and on the 30th of June FIFA agreed to establish the first officially-confirmed World Cup, which was scheduled to be held in the year 1991 in China. Twelve teams again competed with the final being an American victory. United States defeating Norway in the final by 2-1 which included Michelle Akers scoring two goals.

The 1995 edition of Sweden was the first time that Sweden tried an idea of a time-out during the tournament. It was restricted mid-tournament and only occurred during an interruption to the game. The time-out was only used at one time, and was later canceled. The final match of the 1995 edition was a triumphant one for Norway score 17 times in their group phase, lose to Germany with a score of 2-0, and claim their first trophy. In 1999 an event that was among the top infamous moments of the competition was American defenseman Brandi Chastain's celebration of victory after scoring the Cup's winning penalty against China. The American defender took off her uniform and tossed it over her head (as men do often) while showing off her strong body and bra when she celebrated. The 1999 final of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California attracted a crowd of 90,185. This was a record for a woman's sporting event.

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In 1999 as well as 2003, the Women's World Cups were both held in the United States; in 2003 China was to host the event, however the event was delayed due to the outbreak of SARS. In exchange, China retained their automatic eligibility to the 2003 World Cup as the host country, and was then automatically selected as the host for in 2007 the FIFA Women's World Cup. Germany was the host for in 2011 the FIFA Women's World Cup, following a the vote of October 2007. In March of 2011, FIFA awarded Canada the option for hosting the next FIFA Women's World Cup. The 2015 tournament included an increase in the number of teams from 16 teams to 24.

In the 2015. FIFA Women's World Cup, both Formiga from Brazil along with Homare Sawa from Japan participated in their record sixth World Cup, a feat that was never achieved previously by male or female players. Christie Pearce is the oldest player ever to play in a women's World Cup match, at the age of forty years old. In March 2015 FIFA granted France with the rights to host 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup over South Korea.