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.
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
, and nearly one billion viewers from seventy
countries tuned in to watch sixteen countries fight for the
title.The
United States
and
Germany
have won the championship twice, and
Norway once. Germany
is the two-time defending champion.
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.
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
will host
the 2011 FIFA Women's World
Cup, as decided by vote in October 2007. The 2015 event is
currently being contested between Canada
and Chile
.
At the 2007 World Cup in China, U.S. captain
Kristine Lilly competed in her fifth World
Cup, making her the only woman and one of three players in history
to appear in five World Cups.
Format
The participants qualify through the regional football
confederations of
Oceania ,
Europe ,
North America, Central
America and the Caribbean ,
South
America ,
Asia and
Africa .
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. After
Germany trounced Argentina 11–0 in the opening game of the 2007
World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter conceded that the one-sided
match was "not good for the game" and was something that FIFA would
consider in deciding whether or not to expand the group phase to 24
teams.
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.
Tournaments
All-time performance
Awards
adidas Golden Ball
adidas Golden Shoe
FIFA Fair Play Award
Records and statistics
Overall top goalscorers
- 14 goals
- 12 goals
- 11 goals
- 10 goals
- 9 goals
- 8 goals
- 7 goals
Most tournaments appeared (players)
Player |
Appearances |
Kristine
Lilly |
5 (1991, 95, 99, 03, 07) |
Bente Nordby |
5 (1991*, 95, 99, 03, 07) |
Joy Fawcett |
4 (1991, 95, 99, 03) |
Julie Foudy |
4 (1991, 95, 99, 03) |
Mia Hamm |
4 (1991, 95, 99, 03) |
Hege Riise |
4 (1991, 95, 99, 03) |
Sun Wen |
4 (1991, 95, 99, 03) |
Bettina Wiegmann |
4 (1991, 95, 99, 03) |
Formiga |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Katia |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Tânia |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Sandra Minnert |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Birgit Prinz |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Sandra Smisek |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Maureen Mmadu |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Andrea Neil |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Cheryl Salisbury |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Homare Sawa |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
Briana Scurry |
4 (1995, 99, 03, 07) |
|
*Did not play but was part of the squad.
FIFA Women's World Cup winning captains and managers
See also
References
- [1]
External links