| Fifa Women's World Cup |
Article Index for Fifa |
Shopping FIFA |
Website Links For Fifa |
Information AboutFifa Women's World Cup |
|
The FIFA Women's World Cup is recognized as the most important International competition in women's Football and is played amongst Women's National Football Teams of the member states of FIFA , the sport's global governing body. Contested every four years, the first Women's World Cup tournament, named the '''Women's World Championship''', was held in 1991 , sixty-one years after the men's first FIFA World Cup tournament in 1930. The current format has sixteen teams competing every four years for the winner's trophy. HISTORY The tournament was originally the brainchild of the then FIFA president João Havelange .1 The Inaugural Tournament was hosted in China in 1991, with twelve teams sent to represent their countries. The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup was held in Sweden with twelve teams. Over 660,000 spectators attended the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States , 2 and nearly one billion viewers from seventy countries tuned in to watch sixteen countries vie for the title. Of the first four tournaments held, the United States has won the championship twice, Norway once and Germany most recently in the 2003 Tournament . 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 Shot against China . She took off her jersey and waved it over her head (as men frequently do), 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.3 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 . 4 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 . The host country for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup will be decided by vote in November 2007. At the 2007 World Cup in China, U.S. captain Kristine Lilly will participate in her fifth world cup, making her the only woman and one of three players in history to appear in five world cups.5 FORMAT The participants qualify through the regional football confederations of Oceania (OFC) , Europe (UEFA) , North America, Central America And The Caribbean (CONCACAF) , South America (CONMEBOL) , Asia (AFC) and Africa (CAF) . The competition takes place over the course of three weeks. In the group stage, 16 teams seeded into four groups (A,B,C, and D) compete against each other in a round-robin tournament. In the Knockout Phase , the top two teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals, a Single-elimination Tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with Extra Time and Penalty Shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. The winner of Group A plays the runner-up of Group B, The winner of Group B plays the runner-up of Group A, etc. The winners of the four quarterfinal games move on to the semifinal matches, which determine the contestants for the Championship Game . The losing semifinalists compete to determine third place. IMPACT Since its conception in 1989, the Women's World Cup has continued to grow in popularity. FIFA estimates that there are currently forty million girls and women playing football around the world, and the number of women will equal the number of men by 2010. Planning for the 2007 Women's World Cup in China reflects the growth. TOURNAMENTS
ALL-TIME PERFORMANCE See Also: National team appearances in the FIFA Women's World Cup SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|