FIFA Women's World Cup

 The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association soccer competition that is played by 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 tournament has been played every four years, and one year following when there is a FIFA World Cup since 1991 which was the year the inaugural tournament, formerly known 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 one of the slots. The actual tournament, also referred to as"the" World Cup Finals, is held in venues of the hosting nation(s) for 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. They are the United States have won four times and are the present champions following their victory this year's tournament in France. Other winners include Germany with two titles and 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. Canada, France, Germany and Sweden have held it at least once.

History

The first time there was an Women's World Cup dates back to the year 1970 when the first international tournament being held in Italy in July of 1970. The tournament was followed by an informal tournament in the year following in Mexico in which Denmark was awarded the title following winning against Mexico at the end of the tournament. In the late 1980s, the Mundialito was played in Italy in four different editions, and both Italy and England winning two titles.

Many nations lifted their ban on women's soccer in the 1970s, which led to new teams being formed throughout Europe in Europe and North America. Following the first women's international tournaments were played within Asia in 1975, and in Europe during 1984. Ellen Wille declared that she would like to see more performance at the FIFA Congress in promoting the women's sport. In 1988, this came with the help of an invitational tournament held in China as an experiment to determine if an international women's World Cup was feasible. Twelve national teams participated in the tournament - four teams from UEFA and three from AFC Two from CONCACAF and one in CONMEBOL, CAF and OFC. Following the opening game in the competition with China as well as Canada was watched by over 45,000 spectators, the event was judged to be a success with a crowd of 20000. Norway as champions of the tournament, was European champion, lost to Sweden by a score of 1-0 in the final. Brazil took third place after winning against hosts in the penalty shootout. The event was considered to be a success, and on 30 June FIFA agreed to establish an officially-confirmed World Cup, which was to be held in 1991, this time in China. Twelve teams again competed with the final being an American victory. 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 an idea of a time-out during the tournament. This was later made more restrictive mid-game to only happen when there was an interruption to the match. The time-out was only used at one time, and was later canceled. The final match of the 1995 edition witnessed Norway score 17 times in their group phase, beat Germany by a score of 2-0 to claim their first trophy. In 1999 an event that was among the top infamous moments of the competition was American defenseman Brandi Chastain's celebration at the end of the match after scoring the Cup's winning penalty against China. She stripped off her jersey and tossed it over her head (as men do often) while showing off her torso with muscle and a sports bra while she screamed. The 1999 final of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California attracted a crowd of 90,185. This was a record for a female 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 tournament was relocated because of SARS. In compensation, China retained their automatic qualifying for the 2003 World Cup as the host nation, and was selected for hosting in 2007 the FIFA Women's World Cup. Germany was the host for this year's FIFA Women's World Cup, which was decided by a votes in October 2007. In March of 2011, FIFA awarded Canada the rights for hosting the next FIFA Women's World Cup. The 2015 event included an increase in the number of teams from 16 teams to 24.

In the 2015. FIFA Women's World Cup, both Formiga from Brazil as well as Homare Sawa from Japan participated in their record sixth World Cup, a feat that was never achieved before by male or female players. Christie Pearce is the oldest player ever to be a part of an women's World Cup match, at 40 years old. In March 2015 FIFA granted France with the rights to host 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup against South Korea.