2015 FIFA Women's World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup arrived in Canada on the 6th of June 2015 with a question hanging over every match before a single ball was kicked: should the world's best female footballers be made to play on artificial turf? More than fifty players had filed a lawsuit the previous year, and the debate over grass versus turf would follow the tournament from its first whistle to its last. That final came on the 5th of July 2015, when the United States beat Japan, and Carli Lloyd scored the Goal of the Tournament in doing so. But how the sport got to that moment, what it took to expand a World Cup to 24 teams for the first time, and why a Canadian museum hosted the draw that set it all in motion are stories worth telling in full.

• 2. Hosting and the Bid

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  Canada won the right to host by default. When bids closed in December 2010, only two countries had submitted proposals: Canada and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe withdrew on the 1st of March 2011. The country's women's team was ranked 103rd in the world at the time, it had never qualified for a Women's World Cup, and ongoing political and economic instability made the bid a long shot from the start.

  For Canada, the assignment was a natural extension of a long record as a FIFA host nation. The country had previously staged the 1987 FIFA U-16 World Championship, the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, which set an attendance record for that competition. Most recently Canada had hosted the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. Six cities were ultimately chosen: Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, and Moncton. Halifax had also been considered but removed itself in March 2012. Toronto chose not to bid because of potential conflicts with the 2015 Pan American Games.

  The spread of venues across the country meant matches were played in five time zones, an unusual logistical fact for a single tournament. FIFA's policy against commercial sponsorship of stadium names meant that Investors Group Field in Winnipeg became Winnipeg Stadium and TD Place Stadium in Ottawa became Lansdowne Stadium for the duration of the competition.

• 3. Expanding the Field

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  On the 11th of June 2012, FIFA announced the allocation of qualifying berths for the expanded 24-team tournament, up from the 16 teams that had competed in 2011. The number of scheduled matches grew from 32 to 52. UEFA gained the most new slots, going from roughly four and a half to eight berths. The AFC went from three to five slots. Africa, CONCACAF, and CONMEBOL each gained smaller fractions.

  A record eight nations made their Women's World Cup debut in Canada: Cameroon, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Thailand. All previous Women's World Cup finalists had also qualified, giving the field a mix of newcomers and pedigree. Defending champions Japan were in the field, as were former champions Germany, who had won in 2003 and 2007, and the United States, who had won in 1991 and 1999.

  North Korea was absent. After several of the country's players tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during the 2011 Women's World Cup, FIFA banned the national team from participating in 2015. It was the first time any team had been banned from a Women's World Cup, and the first time since 1995 that North Korea had not taken part.

  Each squad consisted of 23 players, two more than the 2011 tournament, matching the size of men's World Cup squads. Squads were officially announced on the 28th of May 2015. Formiga of Brazil and Homare Sawa of Japan each appeared in a World Cup squad for the sixth time, a record for any men's or women's player in the tournament's history.

• 4. The Turf Controversy

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  More than fifty players filed an application with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal on the 1st of October 2014, challenging FIFA's decision to play every match on artificial turf. Their argument was straightforward: FIFA spent $2 million in 1994 to install natural grass over artificial turf at venues in New Jersey and Detroit for the men's World Cup. Playing the women's tournament on turf when the men would never be asked to do so, the players argued, violated the Canadian Human Rights Act.

  2012 Women's World Player of the Year Abby Wambach was direct in her assessment. She noted that the men would strike before playing on artificial turf. United States men's team goalkeeper Tim Howard was among the prominent supporters who backed the women's lawsuit publicly.

  FIFA's head of women's competitions, Tatjana Haenni, was equally direct in the other direction. She made clear that the tournament would be played on artificial turf and that there was no Plan B. In January 2015, the players withdrew the lawsuit and the matches went ahead.

  Once play began, the conditions the players had warned about became visible. On the 21st of June, Fox commentator Julie Stewart-Binks measured the turf temperature at the Canada versus Switzerland round of 16 game in Vancouver and reported her thermometer was officially broken, having apparently maxed out at 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Before the Australia versus Japan quarter-final in Edmonton on the 27th of June, another Fox commentator, Kyndra de St. Aubin, measured air temperature at 82 degrees Fahrenheit and turf temperature at 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Officials chose not to call cooling breaks because the air temperature remained below 32 degrees Celsius. Australian striker Michelle Heyman described the turf as walking on hot coals, saying players' feet just turned white with skin ripped off. Despite all of this, the legal challenge had been dropped and the games went on.

• 5. Innovations on the Pitch

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  Goal-line technology made its Women's World Cup debut in Canada, using the Hawk-Eye system. The system allowed referees and stadium screens to confirm definitively whether the ball had crossed the line. It was a first for the women's tournament and marked a broader adoption of the technology across elite football.

  A total of 29 referees and support referees and 44 assistant referees were appointed for the tournament, drawn from every confederation. Among them was Stéphanie Frappart of France, whose career would go on to reach further heights in international football. The referees came from countries as varied as Malaysia, Zambia, Honduras, Uruguay, Cook Islands, and Slovakia.

  The draw itself had been held on the 6th of December 2014 at 12:00 Eastern Standard Time at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Seeded teams were placed into groups by the Organizing Committee rather than drawn: Canada in Group A as host, Germany in Group B, Japan in Group C, the United States in Group D, Brazil in Group E, and France in Group F. Brazil was seeded ahead of Sweden and England despite a lower FIFA ranking, with FIFA citing geographical reasons. The so-called group of death fell in Group D, which brought together the United States, ranked second in the world, Sweden at fifth, and Australia at tenth.

• 6. The Final and Its Awards

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  Carli Lloyd won both the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player and the Silver Boot as its joint top scorer, finishing with six goals and one assist across 630 minutes played. Germany's Celia Sasic won the Golden Boot outright with the same six goals and one assist but in fewer minutes played, 474 to Lloyd's 630. Anja Mittag of Sweden claimed the Bronze Boot with five goals and two assists across 474 minutes. Lloyd's goal in the final against Japan on the 5th of July was voted Goal of the Tournament by fans, who chose from a shortlist of twelve goals that FIFA.com had curated for public vote; the poll closed on the 13th of July 2015.

  Hope Solo won the Golden Glove as the best goalkeeper. Kadeisha Buchanan of Canada won the Best Young Player award, sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company, as was the Goal of the Tournament prize. The Golden Ball, Golden Boot, and Golden Glove were all sponsored by Adidas.

  FIFA announced shortlists for three of the awards on the 2nd of July 2015, following the semi-finals. The total prize money for the tournament was US$15 million. The United States received $2 million as champions.

  Three spots in the 2016 Summer Olympics women's football tournament were allocated to UEFA nations that progressed furthest in the tournament, excluding England. France and Germany both reached the quarter-finals and earned the first two spots. The third UEFA spot required a play-off tournament in March 2016 among four teams eliminated in the round of 16: Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. Sweden won that play-off and qualified for the Olympics.

• 7. Broadcasting and Marketing

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  In Canada, Bell Media held the broadcast rights. CTV and TSN carried the competition in English, while Réseau des sports aired it in French. In the United States, Fox Sports held English-language rights, broadcasting across the main Fox network and the Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2 pay channels. Fox built a temporary studio at Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver, outside the Vancouver Convention Centre, for its coverage. Spanish-language rights in the United States went to Telemundo and NBC Universo.

  In December 2014, the European Broadcasting Union extended its rights deal with FIFA to cover 37 countries, including the 2015 Women's World Cup. In the United Kingdom, the BBC broadcast every match across BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, and BBC Red Button on television and on Radio 5 Live. In Australia, SBS aired all 52 matches live online and televised 41 of them live; the only matches not shown live on television were those that aired at the same time as other matches.

  The tournament mascot, Shuéme, a female great white owl, was unveiled on the 17th of June 2014 at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. FIFA's commercial partners for the tournament included Adidas, Coca-Cola, Hyundai-Kia, Visa, and Gazprom. In the final week of competition, the Canadian government added Gazprom to its list of organizations sanctioned for supporting the Russian annexation of Crimea. Media reports noted the addition had been delayed, suggesting the timing was chosen to reduce embarrassment to FIFA.