FIFA Women's World Cup

FIFA Women's World Cup
Organising body	FIFA
Founded	1991
Region	International
Number of teams	32 (finals)
Related competitions	FIFA World Cup
Tournament information
Current champions	Spain (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	United States (4 titles)
Current
Website	Official website

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.

History

Before the formation of FIFA Women's World Cup, several unofficial women's football tournaments had been held. In 1970, the first unofficial Women's World Cup was held in Italy. The tournament continued in 1971, this time hosted by Mexico. Both of the tournaments were won by Denmark. The tournament was succeeded by the series of Mundialito tournaments throughout the 1980s in Italy.

In 1988, FIFA organized an invitational tournament in China as a test to see if global Women's World Cup was feasible. Twelve teams took part in this tournament. The tournament saw Norway as the champions after they beat Sweden in the final. The tournament was deemed a success and FIFA approved the establishment of an official World Cup, which would take place in 1991 again in China.

12 teams competed in this first ever official Women's World Cup. Six female referees or assistant referees were appointed among match officials for the first time in FIFA history. The United States claimed the first-ever Women's World Cup title, beating Norway 2–1 in the final, which took place at Guangzhou's Tianhe Stadium.

The next edition of Women's World Cup was held in 1995 in Sweden. FIFA experimented with the time-out concept for the first time at this Women's World Cup. The provisional rule allowed each team to call one two-minute break per half, but only about one in three such breaks were actually taken. Norway beat Germany in the final to clinch the Women's World Cup trophy. The final was refereed by Ingrid Jonsson from Sweden, the first women to referee a FIFA final match.

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 (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.

Format

The final tournament has featured between twelve and twenty-four national teams competing over about one month in the host nation(s). There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.

In the group stage, teams are drawn into groups of four teams each. Each group plays a round-robin tournament, in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams. The two teams finishing first and second in each group and the four best teams among those ranked third qualify for the round of 16, also called the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss.

The knockout stage is 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. It begins with the round of 16. This is followed by the quarter-finals, semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.

Results

Keys

• aet: after extra time
• p: penalty shoot-out

Ed.	Year	Host	First place game			Third place game			Num. teams
			1 ! Champion	Score	2 ! Runner-up	3 ! Third	Score	Fourth
1	1991	China	United States	2–1 Tianhe Stadium, Guangzhou	Norway	Sweden	4–0 Provincial Stadium, Guangzhou	Germany	12
2	1995	Sweden	Norway	2–0 Råsunda Stadium, Solna	Germany	United States	2–0 Strömvallen, Gävle	China	12
3	1999	United States	United States	0–0 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p) Rose Bowl, Pasadena	China	Brazil	0–0 (5–4 p) Rose Bowl, Pasadena	Norway	16
4	2003	United States	Germany	2–1 (a.e.t.) Home Depot Center, Carson	Sweden	United States	3–1 Home Depot Center, Carson	Canada	16
5	2007	China	Germany	2–0 Hongkou Stadium, Shanghai	Brazil	United States	4–1 Hongkou Stadium, Shanghai	Norway	16
6	2011	Germany	Japan	2–2 (a.e.t.) (3–1 p) Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt	United States	Sweden	2–1 Rhein-Neckar-Arena, Sinsheim	France	16
7	2015	Canada	United States	5–2 BC Place, Vancouver	Japan	England	1–0 (a.e.t.) Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton	Germany	24
8	2019	France	United States	2–0 Parc Olympique Lyonnais, Lyon	Netherlands	Sweden	2–1 Allianz Riviera, Nice	England	24
9	2023	Australia  New Zealand	TBD	TBD Stadium Australia, Sydney	TBD	TBD	TBD Lang Park, Brisbane	TBD	32

In all, 36 nations have played in at least one Women's World Cup. Of those, four nations have won the World Cup. With four titles, the United States is the most successful Women's World Cup team and is one of only seven nations to play in every World Cup. They have also had the most top four finishes (8), medals (8), and final appearances (5), including the longest streak of three consecutive finals in 2011, 2015, and 2019.

Teams reaching the top four

Teams reaching the top four

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place	Total
United States	4 (1991, 1999*, 2015, 2019)	1 (2011)	3 (1995, 2003*, 2007)	–	8
Germany	2 (2003, 2007)	1 (1995)	–	2 (1991, 2015)	5
Norway	1 (1995)	1 (1991)	–	2 (1999, 2007)	4
Japan	1 (2011)	1 (2015)	–	–	2
Sweden	–	1 (2003)	3 (1991, 2011, 2019)	–	4
Brazil	–	1 (2007)	1 (1999)	–	2
China	–	1 (1999)	–	1 (1995)	2
Netherlands	–	1 (2019)	–	–	1
England	–	–	1 (2015)	1 (2019)	2
Canada	–	–	–	1 (2003)	1
France	–	–	–	1 (2011)	1

* = hosts

External links

• FIFA official site
• UEFA's page on the FIFA Women's World Cup
• RSSSF's pages