Stay Signed In
Do you want to access your site more quickly on this computer? Check this box, and your username and password will be remembered for two weeks. Click logout to turn this off.
Stay Safe
Do not check this box if you are using a public computer. You don't want anyone seeing your personal info or messing with your site.
From the earliest Years of its history well into the 1970s and, apart from a brief boom period around the start of the 1900s football was almost Exclusively a man's sport.
The rough and tumble of the early versions had held no attractions for the fairer sex, and male dominance in most societies had acted to contain what little enthusiasm women may have shown for playing the sport as it became an increasingly important social force in the 1900s. but to express themselves on the football field as in other walks of life,and as the century moved into its final quarter,womens football had clearly come to stay Fifa did not fail to react to this trend.
FIFA COMPETITIONS
The first Womens World Championship was held in China in 1991, fulfilling a pledge made by President Joao Havelange at the 1986 Congress in Mixico City.The quality of the football and the enthusiasm with which it was received entirely vindicated Fifa's decision. The US women took the new trophy and set new standards for their female colleagues around the world.
Four years later, at the 2nd Womens World Cup in Sweden, the honours went to the team from Norway. In 1999,the final in the USA smashed all crowd records for a single womens sports event by drawing in 90,185 fans. Following a long and gripping battle, the Americans managed to recapture the cup after a penalty shoot out against the Chinese.
The reservations of yesteryear, concerning physical risks to women players, are now a thing of the past. The Womens World Cup, featuring 16 teams in the USA, and the Womens Olympic Football Tournament introduced in Atianta in 1996 featuring eight teams (since increased to ten for Athens 2004 and to 12 for Beijing 2006), have since firmly taken root in the range of FIFA competitions.
Eleven years after the inaugural FIFA Womens World Cup, Canada played host to the first ever international FIFA development competition for women. The FIFA U/19 World Championship bore witness to some dazzling football from its young Athletes, including an extremly tense final beteewn neighbouring North American rivals, USA and Canada (2-1 aet to USA). A resounding success, with players like Kara Lang,Angie Woznuk, marta,Brittany Tinko and others already veterans of the last U/19, the level of coolness and proficiency went up by leaps and bounds. As Russia 2006, this event will be organised as the FIFA U/20 Womens World Championship.
Mia Hamm USA
Although the 2003 edition of the Womens World Cup had originally been awarded to China,international events would not have it so and the legacy of the SARS crisis moved the tournament to the North American continent, again held by America. The fourth instalment of the FIFA Womens World Cup, hosted by the USA, saw increased parity, a new goals galore and loads of enthralling football. In a breathtaking golden-goal final in front of 26,127 captivated fans at LA's state-of-the-art Home Depot Centre, Germany took home the laurels for the first time in their history, while the brave Swedes were forced to rue what might have been.
PROGRESS
Despite its ever-increasing popularity over the past twenty years, womens football is still very much in its infancy compared to other sporting endeavours.Continuing discrepancies in developmental rates for womens fotball around the world ~ depressingly slow in some places, incredibly fast in others ~ are a reflection of how different countries have approached the development of the game, both at the domestic and national team levels. Football for young girls in many parts of the world is often considered more of a solely recreational activity by coaches and parents and even by club managers and administrators. This is due to a variety of reasons, including existing cultural barrier, social mores and the lack of any financial hope for a future in the game.
In response, FIFA's systematic development work for womens football has become one of its major and most enduring activities. Since begining this world development programme focused on womens football, hundreds of coaches, players, referees, administrators and doctors have taken advantage of development courses, symposiums, video productions, and other activities organised by FIFA.
Women have been playing football for as long as the game as existed. Evidence shows that a ancient version of the game (Tsu Chu) was played by women during the Han Dynasty. Two female figures are depicted in Han Dynasty frescoes. There are, however, a number of opinions about the accuracy of dates, the earliest estimates at 5000 BCE.
Association football, the modern game, also has documented early women's matches. In Europe, it is possible that 12th century French women played football as part of that era's folk games. An annual competition in Midlothian, Scotland during the 1790s is reported,too. In 1863, football governing bodies introduced standardized rules to prohibit violence on the pitch, making it more socially acceptable for women to play. The first women's match recorded by the Scottish Football Association took place in 1892 in Glasgow. In England, the first recorded game of football between women took place in 1895
The most well documented early European team was founded by activist, Nettie Honeyball, in England, 1894. It was named the British Ladies Football Club. Nettie Honeyball is quoted,"I founded the association late last year [1894], with the fixed resolve of proving to the world that women are not the ornamental and useless creatures men have pictured. I must confess, my convictions on all matters where the sexes so widely divided are all on the side of emancipation, and I look forward to the time when ladies may sit in Parliament and have a voice in the direction of affairs,especially those which concern them most."
Nettie Honeyball
Honeyball and those like her paved the way for women's football. However, the women's game was frowned upon by the british football associations, and continued without their support. It has been suggested that the exclusion of women was motivated by a perceived threat to the masculinity of the game.
Women's football first became popular on a large scale during the first World War, when employment of women in heavy industry spurred the growth of the game via company teams, much as it had done for men fifty years earlier. The most successful team of the era was Dick, Kerr's Ladies of Preston. Dick Kerr's Ladies played in the first women's international matches in 1920.
They played a team from Paris in April and also made up most of the England team against Scotland Ladies in 1920, winning 22-0. Dick Kerr's Ladies returned to Scotland in 1921, for a second international an audience of 6000. They also toured Scotland afterwards, playing five matches for 70,000 people in the stands.
The Dick Kerr's Ladies Tour 1922
despite being more popular than some men's football events' one match saw a 53,000 strong crowd,women's football in England and Scotland suffered a blow in 1921. The Football Association, in England, banned women from playing the game on Association pitches,on the grounds that the game (as played by women) was distesteful.
A similar decree was made by scottish football authirities. Some speculated that these decisions my have been driven by envy of the large crowds that womens matches attracted. The ban lead to the formation of the English ladies football association, ans womens football matches were moved to rugby grounds and park football pitches not affiliated to the FA. The ban limited public exposure for womens football ans slowed it's growth, but did not stop it. Womens football continued to draw dedicated players and fans.
Part Of A Women's Football Strip
From The 1890s
The English Women's FA was formed as a result of the increased interest generated by the 1966 World Cup and the FA's ban on matches being played on members grounds was finally lifted in 1971. In the same year UEFA recommended that the women's game should be taken under the control of the national associations in each country.
In the 1970s, Italy became the first country with professional women's football players, albeit on a part-time basis. The first full-time professional team was the U.S.A. national squad, and in 1992, Japan was the first country to have a semi-professional women's football league.
At the beginning of the 21st century women's football, like men's football,has become professionalised and is growing in both popularity and participation. From the first know professional team team in 1984, to the hundreds of thousands of tickets sold for the 1999 Women's World Cup, support of women's professional fooball has increased around the globe.
However, as inother sports, women have struggled for pay and opportunities equal to male football players. Major league and international women's football enjoys far less television and media coverage than the men's equivalent. For instance the 2006 Algarve Cup, a significant international tournament, was televised very little in Europe, Eurosport did broadcast some games and none of the games were shown in the USA Where the women's game arguably has the highest profile. Another example is that FIFA's Women's website links to information about the men's team. In spite of this, the popularity and participation in women's football is expected to continue growing
In 1937 Dick Kerr's Ladies played Edinburgh Ladies in the championship of Great Britain and the world but there was no formal internatoional tournament until 1982 when the first UEFA European competition for representative womens teams launched. The 1984 finals was won by Sweden, this competition name was succeded by the UEFA womens championship and today is commonly reffered to as the womens euro. Norway won, in the 1987 finals since then the UEFA womens chamionship has been dominated by Germany, which has won 6 of the 7 subsequent competitions, including the 2005 womens euro
The Women's
Euro Cup
The first womens World Cup was held in China in 1991, and was won by the USA. The third cup, in the United States in 1999, drew world wide telelevision interest and a final in front of a record setting 90,000+ Los Angeles crowd, where the home team won 5-4 on penalty kicks.
Prior to the FIFA's establishment of the womens World Cup, several unofficial tournaments took place, including the FIFA's womens invitation tournament 1988, which was also hosted in China
