FIFA Women's World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The FIFA Women's World Cup was born from a simple question: could a global women's football competition fill stadiums? In 1988, twelve national teams gathered in China for an invitation tournament to find out. The opening match between China and Canada drew 45,000 people. Crowds averaged 20,000 across the competition. FIFA had its answer, and on the 30th of June that year, the organization approved an official World Cup to begin in 1991.

  What followed was a tournament that would grow from twelve teams to thirty-two, from near-empty venues to a final watched by more than 90,000 people in Pasadena, California. Five nations have lifted the trophy. Billions of viewers have watched from home. And the competition has generated its own cast of record-breakers, milestone moments, and controversies over money and media rights that reveal exactly how the world values women's sport.

  This is the story of how a test event in China became one of the most watched sporting competitions on earth, and what still remains unresolved.

• 2. Before FIFA Got Involved

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  In July 1970, Denmark won the first tournament ever called a Women's World Cup, held in Italy without any FIFA involvement. The following year, a second unofficial competition took place in Mexico, where Denmark again claimed the title, defeating Mexico 3-0 in the final at the Azteca Stadium.

  Those early tournaments existed in a landscape that was still emerging. Several countries had only recently lifted outright bans on women's football, which had suppressed the game for decades. As those bans fell away in the 1970s, new national teams formed, and continental competitions began to follow. Official women's tournaments were organized in Asia in 1975 and in Europe in 1984.

  Throughout the 1980s, a tournament called the Mundialito was held in Italy across four editions, with both Italy and England claiming two titles each. These competitions were building pressure for FIFA to act. Ellen Wille, a key figure in pushing the women's game forward, declared publicly that she wanted greater effort from the FIFA Congress. The 1988 invitation tournament in China was the direct result of that pressure, and Norway's 1-0 defeat of Sweden in that final, combined with the strong attendance figures, made the case for a permanent competition impossible to ignore.

• 3. Landmarks and Turning Points

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  China hosted the inaugural official FIFA Women's World Championship in 1991. Twelve teams competed, and the United States defeated Norway 2-1 in the final, with Michelle Akers scoring both American goals.

  Eight years later, the tournament reached a cultural milestone. The 1999 final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, drew an attendance of 90,185, a figure that remains the all-time record for the competition. American defender Brandi Chastain scored the winning penalty kick against China and, in celebration, pulled off her jersey and waved it above her head. That image became one of the most recognized moments in women's sports history.

  The 2003 tournament was supposed to return to China but was moved to the United States following a SARS outbreak. As compensation, China retained automatic qualification to the 2003 tournament as though they were hosts, and FIFA automatically chose them to host the 2007 edition. Germany hosted the 2011 tournament, a decision made by vote in October 2007. Canada won hosting rights for 2015 in March of that year, and France was awarded the 2019 edition over South Korea in March 2015.

  The 2015 competition expanded the field from 16 to 24 teams. That same tournament produced two remarkable records: Formiga of Brazil and Homare Sawa of Japan each appeared in their sixth Women's World Cup, a feat no male or female player had achieved before. Christie Pearce became the oldest player ever to appear in a Women's World Cup match, at the age of 40.

• 4. The 2023 Expansion

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  Australia and New Zealand jointly hosted the 2023 tournament, a first in several respects. It was the first Women's World Cup held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first to be hosted by two countries, and the first FIFA competition for either men or women to be staged across two confederations. Australia belongs to the Asian Football Confederation; New Zealand is a member of the Oceania Football Confederation.

  The field expanded again, from 24 to 32 teams. Total attendance reached 1,978,274, setting a new attendance record for all FIFA competitions except the men's World Cup. Spain won the title, defeating England 1-0 in the final. That victory made Spain only the second nation in history to hold both a men's and women's World Cup title, after Germany.

  On the revenue side, the 2023 tournament generated $570 million. That figure represents 9% of what the 2018 men's World Cup earned at $6.1 billion. FIFA had separated broadcast rights for the Women's World Cup from the men's tournament for the first time in 2023, and the negotiations exposed significant gaps in how broadcasters valued the competition. German broadcasters ZDF and ARD bid just 3% as much for the Women's World Cup as they had for the 2022 men's tournament. French and Spanish broadcasters offered less than 5%, and Italian broadcasters less than 1%.

• 5. Dominant Teams and Records

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  Nine tournaments have produced five different champions. The United States leads with four titles, won in 1991, 1999, 2015, and 2019. Germany won twice. Japan, Norway, and Spain have each won once.

  The United States holds a string of records that reflect sustained excellence across the tournament's entire history. They are one of only seven nations to have played in every Women's World Cup. Their eight top-four finishes and five final appearances are unmatched, including three consecutive finals in 2011, 2015, and 2019.

  At the individual level, Marta of Brazil leads all scorers with 17 goals, ahead of Germany's Birgit Prinz on 14 and American Abby Wambach also on 14. Michelle Akers, who scored both goals in the 1991 final, sits on 12. The United States has scored 142 goals across all tournaments, placing them first in that category by a significant margin.

  Among confederation-level records, only four of the six FIFA confederations have ever reached a Women's World Cup final. Africa's CAF and Oceania's OFC have never done so. The farthest advancing African team was Nigeria, eliminated in the quarter-finals in 1999. Brazil's appearance in the 2007 final remains the only Women's World Cup final appearance by a South American team, and they lost that match.

• 6. The Trophy and Its Value

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  William Sawaya designed the current FIFA Women's World Cup trophy in 1998, in time for the 1999 tournament. It takes the form of a spiral band enclosing a football at the top, stands 47 centimeters tall, weighs 4.6 kilograms, and is made of sterling silver clad in 23-karat yellow and white gold. It was sculpted by Sawaya and Moroni in Milan.

  In the 2010s, the trophy was fitted with a cone-shaped base. The names of previous winners are engraved underneath that base. Its estimated value in 2015 was approximately $30,000.

  The men's World Cup trophy, by contrast, is fabricated in 18-karat gold and carries a precious metal value of $150,000. There is also a structural difference in how each trophy is handled after the tournament. The original women's trophy stays with FIFA; each women's champion takes home a replica. For the men's tournament, a new winner's trophy is constructed for each champion to keep. Since 2007, winners of the women's tournament also receive the FIFA Champions Badge, worn on team jerseys until the next edition's winners are decided.

• 7. What Comes Next

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  Brazil will host the 2027 tournament, bringing the Women's World Cup to South America for the first time. In 2031, the competition will expand once more, from 32 to 48 teams, when Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, and the United States co-host. That edition will be the first Women's World Cup hosted by more than two countries. The knockout stage will expand to include a round of 32 to accommodate the larger field, and the top eight third-place teams from the group stage will advance rather than the current four.

  In 2035, the competition is scheduled to move to the United Kingdom, with England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales sharing hosting duties. The 2015 Women's World Cup Final remains, at present, the most watched soccer match in American history, drawing nearly 23 million viewers, surpassing both the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup that year. More than 750 million viewers were reported worldwide for that tournament. Whether the 2027 or 2031 editions challenge those figures will depend partly on how FIFA resolves the broadcast rights disputes that left several major European markets without coverage in 2023.