Women's association football
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20160413054414im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/20131031_AT14_Heike_Manhart_9222.jpg/220px-20131031_AT14_Heike_Manhart_9222.jpg)
Women's association football (women's soccer) is the most prominent team sport played by women around the globe. It is played at the professional level in numerous countries throughout the world and 176 national teams participate internationally.
The history of women's football has seen major competitions being launched at both the national and international levels. Women's football has faced many struggles throughout its history. Although its first golden age occurred in the United Kingdom in the early 1920s, when one match achieved over 50,000 spectators, the Football Association initiated a ban in 1921 that disallowed women's football games from the grounds used by its member clubs. The ban stayed in effect until July 1971. The same year, UEFA recommended that the women's game should be taken under the control of the national associations in each country.
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 known professional team in 1984, to the hundreds of thousands of tickets sold for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, support of women's professional football (soccer) has increased around the globe. However, as in other 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. In spite of this, the popularity and participation in women's football continues to grow.
Selected article
The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 November to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international governing body selected China as host nation as Guangdong had hosted a prototype world championship three years earlier, the 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament. Matches were played in the state capital, Guangzhou, as well as in Foshan, Jiangmen and Zhongshan. The competition was sponsored by Mars, Incorporated. With FIFA still reluctant to bestow their "World Cup" brand, the tournament was officially known as the 1st FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M's Cup.
It was won by the United States, whose captain April Heinrichs formed a forward line dubbed the "triple–edged sword" with Carin Jennings and Michelle Akers-Stahl. Jennings was named player of the tournament while Akers-Stahl's ten goals won the Golden Shoe. The United States beat Norway 2–1 in the final in front of a crowd of 65,000 people at Guangzhou's Tianhe Stadium. Total attendance was 510,000, an average per match of 19,615. In the opening match at the same stadium, Norway had been defeated 4–0 by hosts China. Goalkeeper Zhong Honglian, of China, posted the first official "clean sheet" in the tournament.
Selected biography
Christine Sinclair (born June 12, 1983) is a Canadian professional soccer player for Portland Thorns FC and is captain of the Canadian national team. Sinclair is an Olympic bronze medalist and one of the most prolific scorers of all time.
Sinclair has spent 13 years with the national team, participating in three FIFA Women's World Cups (USA 2003, China 2007, Germany 2011) and two Olympic Football Tournaments (Beijing 2008, London 2012). She is an 11-time winner of the Canada Soccer Player of the Year award and has been honoured by FIFA as a nominee for World Player of the Year six times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012). In 2012, Sinclair won both the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year and the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada's female athlete of the year. In September 2013, she was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.
Selected league
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play in spring 2013 with eight teams; four of them are former members of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), which had been the top women's league in the United States soccer pyramid before its demise in 2012.
Selected picture
![Kuwait women's national football team, 2012](https://web.archive.org/web/20160413054414im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/de/Kuwait_women%27s_football_team_2012.jpg/360px-Kuwait_women%27s_football_team_2012.jpg)
Members of the Kuwait women's national football team line up prior to their friendly match against Qatar, 2012.
Did you know?
- ... that the female footballer Bilgin Defterli decided to go to Germany because she saw no chance to play football in Turkey due to the dissolution of women's football leagues in 2003? (19 December 2013)
- ... that Leyla Güngör scored a goal against Spain in her first game as a member of the Turkey women's national football team? (December 23, 2013)
- ... that Arzu Karabulut currently plays for both German and Turkish football teams? (January 7, 2014)
- ... that women's football forward Seyhan Gündüz was capped 32 times internationally, scoring 12 goals, a rate of 0.375 a match? (January 28, 2014)
- ... that Sydney Leroux (pictured) represented Canada before deciding to play for the United States women's national soccer team? (February 16, 2014)
- ... that two-time Olympic gold medalist Carli Lloyd is the only player to score the game-winning goal in two consecutive Olympic gold medal soccer matches? (March 4, 2014)
- ... that Megan Rapinoe (pictured) is the first soccer player, male or female, to score a rare Goal Olimpico at the Olympic Games?
Selected national team
The Togo women's national football team is a FIFA-recognised team that represents Togo in international football competition. Togo have played five FIFA-recognised matches, all in 2006, and are currently unranked. They have not competed in major regional and international tournaments. While the country has under-17 and under-20 national sides, further development of the team and the sport in Togo faces challenges common to African countries, as well as country-specific problems such as the sport's lack of domestic popularity.
In the news
- December 17: Wikinews interviews former Matilda's player Sarah Walsh about Australian women's soccer
- December 7: Wikinews interviews academic Steve Redhead about Australian women's soccer
- January 7: Abby Wambach wins FIFA World Player of the Year
- November 19: Canberra United lose first game since January 2011
- July 27: London Olympics organizers apologize after North Korea flag gaffe
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