FIFA Women's World Cup

The FIFA Women's World Cup is the most important championship in international football competition for women. Organised by FIFA, the sport's largest global governing body, the first Women's World Cup tournament was held in 1991, 61 years after the men's. The inaugural tournament was hosted in China, with 12 teams sent to represent their countries. Over 650,000 spectators attended the FIFA Women's World Cup 1999 and nearly 1 billion viewers from 70 countries tuned in. By the FIFA Women's World Cup 2003, 16 teams competed in the championship finals. Of the four tournaments held to date (2006), the USA has won the championship twice, Norway once and Germany most recently. Women's confederations are the same as men's: Oceania (OFC), Europe (UEFA), North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCACAF), South American (CONMEBOL), Asian (AFC) and African (CAF). Originally the brainchild of a 1986 Men's World Cup FIFA official, the Women's World Cup has continued to grow in popularity. FIFA estimates that there are currently 40 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.

16 women's national football teams compete every four years for this women's world championship. In the United States, one of the most famous historical moments in the women's tournament is Brandi Chastain's victory celebration after scoring the Cup-winning penalty shot against China in 1999. 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 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 received the FIFA Women's World Cup 2007. The host country for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 will be decided by vote.

Tournaments

Year	Host		Final				Third Place Match
			Winner	Score	Runner-up		3rd Place	Score	4th Place
1991 Details	China		United States	2 - 1	Norway		Sweden	4 - 0	Germany
1995 Details	Sweden		Norway	2 - 0	Germany		United States	2 - 0	China
1999 Details	United States		United States	0 - 0 asdet	China		Brazil	0 - 0 (no et)	Norway
			5 - 4 on penalty shootout				5 - 4 on penalty shootout
2003 Details	United States		Germany	2 - 1 asdet	Sweden		United States	3 - 1	Canada
			Match decided on golden goal
2007 Details	China
2011 Details	to be determined

• Key:
  • aet - after extra time
  • asdet - after sudden death extra time

All-time performance

Main article: National team appearances in the FIFA Women's World Cup

Country	Winner	Second	3 or 4	Other
Template:USAwf	2	0	2	0
Template:GERwf	1	1	1	1
Template:NORwf	1	1	1	1
Template:SWEwf	0	1	1	2
Template:CHNwf	0	1	1	2
Template:BRAwf	0	0	1	3
Template:CANwf	0	0	1	2
Template:JPNwf	0	0	0	4
Template:NGAwf	0	0	0	4
Template:AUSwf	0	0	0	3
Template:DENwf	0	0	0	3
Template:GHAwf	0	0	0	2
Template:ITAwf	0	0	0	2
Template:PRKwf	0	0	0	2
Template:RUSwf	0	0	0	2
Template:ARGwf	0	0	0	1
Chinese Taipei	0	0	0	1
Template:ENGwf	0	0	0	1
Template:FRAwf	0	0	0	1
Template:KORwf	0	0	0	1
Template:MEXwf	0	0	0	1
Template:NZLwf	0	0	0	1

See also

• Women's football (soccer)
• The History of Women's Football
• FIFA World Cup

External links

• http://www.fifa.com/en/womens/index.html
• UEFA's page on the FIFA Women's World Cup