FIFA Women's World Cup

 The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament which is played by the women's senior national teams from the members of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) which is the governing body of international football. The event has been held every four years, and one year following it. It has been held after the FIFA World Cup since 1991 in the year that the first event, which was then referred to as"the FIFA Women's World Championship, was held in China. The format of the tournament is as follows national teams compete for 23 slots during an annual qualification phase. The team of the host nation is automatically enrolled as in the slot 24. The actual tournament, also referred to as"the" World Cup Finals, is played at venues in that host nation(s) during a time that is about a month.

In the eight FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments have been won by four teams from the national team. For instance, the United States have won four times and are the current champions , having won it during the tournament of 2019 in France. Other winners include Germany with two titles, as well as Japan and Norway each with a title.

Six countries have been host to this year's Women's World Cup. China along with the United States have each hosted the event twice, while Canada, France, Germany and Sweden have played once.

History

The first appearance of an Women's World Cup dates back to the year 1970 The first ever international competition taking place in Italy in July of 1970. It was followed by another non-official event the following year in Mexico in which Denmark was awarded the title following beating Mexico during the championship. In the mid-1980s, Mundialito was played in Italy in four different editions, with Italy and England winning two titles.

A number of nations lifted their ban on women's football during the 1970s, which led to the creation of new teams all over Europe as well as North America. Following the first women's international tournaments took place within Asia in 1975, and in Europe at the time of 1984 Ellen Wille declared that she was looking for a greater efforts at the FIFA Congress in promoting the women's sport. The first time this was done was in 1988 with the help of an invitational tournament held in China as an experiment to determine if the idea of a women's global World Cup was feasible. Twelve national teams participated in the tournament: four teams from UEFA three from AFC and two from CONCACAF and one of CONMEBOL, CAF and OFC. After the first match in the competition with China as well as Canada was watched by over 45,000 spectators, the event was declared a success with attendance of around 20000. Norway which was in the position of European champion, beat Sweden by a score of 1-0 in the final. Brazil took third place after defeating hosts in an infamous penalty shootout. The tournament was judged to be to be a success, and on 30 June FIFA approved the creation of an officially-confirmed World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in the year 1991 in China. There were 12 teams competing and this time it was winning by the United States defeating Norway in the final by 2-1 and with Michelle Akers scoring two goals.

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The 1995 tournament in Sweden was the first time that Sweden tried the concept of a time-out throughout the tournament. It was restricted mid-tournament and only occurred during an interruption in the match. The time-out was only used during one tournament, which was later canceled. The final match of the 1995 edition was a triumphant one for Norway scoring 17 times in their group phase, lose to Germany with a score of 2-0, and win their only trophy. In 1999 among the more infamous moments of the competition was American defenseman Brandi Chastain's celebration of victory after scoring the Cup's winning penalty against China. She stripped off her jersey and placed it on her head (as males do frequently) and showed off her torso with muscle and a sports bra when she screamed. The 1999 final of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California attracted a crowd of 90,185. It was a new record for a woman's sporting event.

In 1999 as well as 2003, the Women's World Cups were both held in the United States; in 2003 China was to host the event, however the event was delayed due to the outbreak of SARS. In exchange, China retained their automatic qualifying for the 2003 tournament as the host nation, and was selected as the host for in 2007 the FIFA Women's World Cup. Germany was the host for this year's FIFA Women's World Cup, following a the vote of October 2007. In March of 2011, FIFA awarded Canada the option for hosting the next FIFA Women's World Cup. The 2015 tournament was a huge expansion of the field from 16 teams to 24.

In the year 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, both Formiga from Brazil along with Homare Sawa from Japan played in their record-breaking sixth World Cup, a feat which had never been accomplished previously by male or female players. Christie Pearce is the oldest player ever to be a part of the Women's World Cup match, at 40 years old. In March of 2015, FIFA granted France an opportunity to host next year's FIFA Women's World Cup against South Korea.