Women’s World Cup is an International football competition that is held every four years since 1991!
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this football competition!
- The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international football competition
- Contested by the senior women’s national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
- The sport’s international governing body
- The competition has been held every four years since 1991
- The inaugural tournament, then called the FIFA Women’s World Championship, was held in China
- Under the tournament’s current format, national teams vie for 23 slots in a three-year qualification phase
- The host nation’s team is automatically entered as the 24th slot
- The tournament proper, alternatively called the World Cup Finals
- It is contested at venues within the host nation over a period of about one month
- The seven FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments have been won by four national teams
- United States have won three times
- Including the last one in 2015
- The other winners are Germany, with two titles
- Japan and Norway with one title each
- Six countries have hosted the Women’s World Cup
- China and United States have hosted twice
- While Canada, France, Germany and Sweden have each hosted once
- The first instance of a Women’s World Cup dates back to 1970
- With the first international tournament taking place in Italy throughout July 1970
- This was followed up by another unofficial tournament the following year
- This time in Mexico
- There Denmark would take out the title after defeating Mexico in the final
- In the mid 1980s, the Mundialito was held in Italy across four editions
- With both Italy and England winning two titles
- Several countries lifted their ban on women’s football in the 1970s
- Leading to new teams being established across Europe and North America
- The first international women’s tournaments were held in Asia in 1975
- And 1984 in Europe
- Ellen Wille declared that she wanted better effort from the FIFA Congress in promoting the women’s game
- This came in the form of an invitational tournament in China as a test to see if a global women’s World Cup was feasible
- Twelve national teams took part in the competition
- Four from UEFA
- Three from AFC
- Two from CONCACAF
- And one each from CONMEBOL, CAF and OFC
- The opening match of the tournament between China and Canada saw an attendance of 45,000 people
- The tournament was deemed a success with crowds averaging 20,000
- Norway defeated Sweden with 1- 0 in the final
- While Brazil clinched third place by beating the hosts in a penalty shootout
- The competition was deemed a success
- On 30 June FIFA approved the establishment of an official World Cup
- Which was to take place in 1991 again in China
- Again, twelve teams competed
- This time culminating in the United States defeating Norway in the final with 2- 1
- Michelle Akers scored two goals
- The 1995 edition in Sweden saw the experiment of a time-out concept throughout the tournament
- Which was later tighten mid-tournament to only occur after a break in play
- The time-out would only appear in the one tournament which saw it scrapped
- The final of the 1995 edition saw Norway who scored 17 goals in the group stage defeat Germany 2–0 to capture their only title
- In the 1999 edition, one of the most famous moments of the tournament was American defender Brandi Chastain’s victory celebration after scoring the Cup-winning penalty kick against China
- She took off her jersey and waved it over her head
- Showing her muscular torso and sports bra as she celebrated
- The 1999 final in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, had an attendance of 90,185
- A world record for a women’s sporting event
- The 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cups were both held in the United States
- In 2003 China was supposed to host it
- But the tournament was moved because of SARS
- As compensation, China retained its automatic qualification to the 2003 tournament as host nation
- And was automatically chosen to host the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup
- Germany hosted the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup
- As was decided by vote in October 2007
- In March 2011, FIFA awarded Canada the right to host the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup
- The 2015 edition saw the field expand from 16 to 24 teams
- During the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, both Formiga of Brazil and Homare Sawa of Japan made a record of appearing in six World Cups
- A feat that had never been achieved before by either female or male players
- Christie Pearce is the oldest player to ever play in a Women’s World Cup match
- At the age of 40 years
- In March 2015, FIFA awarded France the right to host the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup over South Korea
- Qualifying tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe)
- Theu are organised by their respective confederations
- For each tournament, FIFA decides beforehand the number of berths awarded to each of the continental zones
- Based on the relative strength of the confederations’ teams
- The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth in the finals
- Since the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the number of finalists increased from 16 to 24
- The final tournament has featured between 12 and 24 national teams competing over about one month in the host nation. There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage
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