Did you know there’s a Women’s World Cup tournament taking place next year?
Did you know there’s a Women’s World Cup tournament taking place next year? Don’t feel too bad if you didn’t, after all, it’s not as if there’s been much coverage on it in the media. When the words FIFA World Cup is mentioned, most people automatically assume it is in reference to the men’s world cup but what about the women’s game?
The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup which kicksoff in June 2015, is the largest single sporting event for women but unlike the FIFA Men’s World Cup, it has received less coverage and less commercial endorsements.
As usual, the FIFA Men’s World Cup taking place in Rio this summer, has had overwhelming coverage. In fact,the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar which is eight years from now has more coverage than the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup which will be taking place a little over a year from now.
Have you seen any articles, adverts or competitions pertaining to the women’s game? To rectify this, here some facts you didn’t know about the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
1: The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be the seventh FIFA Women’s World Cup. The tournament will be held in Canada from 6 June to 5 July in six host cities—Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Moncton.
2: The FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy was designed by William Sawaya. The trophy has a marble base and the spiral and football are made of pure silver covered with 23-carat gold white gold.
3: A new trophy is produced for every FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament, which the winners get to keep. This is the opposite of the FIFA Men’s World Cup Trophy, of which there is only one original, which always stays in the possession of FIFA.
4: The all-time attendance record for a FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament was at the FIFA Women’s World Cup USA 1999.
5: Seven teams have participated in all six previous FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments: Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden and the USA
6: Unlike the men’s FIFA World Cup, the women’s event has been hosted by the same country twice in a row.
7: Despite having won four out of the five previous tournaments, Germany and the USA have never met in a FIFA Women’s World Cup final.
8: The USA are the only team to have reached the semi-final of all six FIFA Women’s World Cup.
9: Sweden’s Lena Videkull scored the fastest goal in the tournament’s history. She opened the scoring after just 30 seconds of her team’s match against Japan in 1991.
10: Ifeanyi Chiejine from Nigeria became the youngest player of all time when she took to the field against Denmark in 1999 at the tender age of 16 years and one month.
11: Japan defender Azusa Iwashimizu became the first player to be sent off in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Final in the match against USA in 2011.
12: At the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991, Gunilla Paijkull was the first female ever to coach a Women’s World Cup team. She led Sweden to third place.
13: Germany‘s Nadine Angerer is the most successful goalkeeper in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. She’s a two-time world champion and didn’t concede a single goal during 2007’s tournament.
14: The first goal in the FIFA Women’s World Cup was scored by China’s Ma Li in the 22nd minute of the tournament’s opening match between China and Norway on 16 November 1991.
15: 1995 winners Norway hold the record for the most consecutive FIFA World Cup wins when they achieved ten straight victories between 1995 and 1999.
16: At the age of 32 years and 314 days, Japan’s Homare Sawa became the oldest scorer in a FIFA Women’s World Cup final when she played against USA on 17 July 2011.
What do you think? Why isn’t there interest in the Women’s World Cup? Will you watch? Have your say in the comments section below.
