Welcome to Charlie's Big Women's Football Site.
Early Women's football
Women's football has been played for a long time with reports of the game
being played in the 1790s . The first match recorded by the Scottish
Football Association took place in 1892 in Glasgow. In England the first
recorded game of football between women took place in England in 1895.
However the women's game was frowned upon by the British Football
Associations, and continued without their support. It has been speculated
that this may have been due to the threat to the 'masculinity' of the game.
Women's football first became popular on a large scale at the time of the
First World War, when employment in heavy industry spurred the growth of the
game, much as it had done for men fifty years earlier. The most successful
team of the era was Dick, Kerr's Ladies of Preston, England. The team played
in the first women's international matches in 1920, against a team from
Paris, France, in April, and also made up most of the England team against a
Scottish Ladies XI in 1920, and winning 22-0 .
Despite being more popular than some men's football events (one match saw a
53,000 strong crowd), women's football in England suffered a blow in 1921
when The Football Association outlawed the playing of the game on
Association members' pitches, on the grounds that the game (as played by
women) was distasteful. Some speculated that this may have also been to envy
of the large crowds that women's matches attracted.
This led to the formation of the English Ladies Football Association, and
play moved to rugby grounds. The lack of exposure of Women's football also
slowed its growth, but its popularity still grew after the ban.
The 'revival' of the Women's game
The English Women's FA was formed in 1969 (as a result of the increased
interest generated by the 1966 World Cup), and the FA's ban was finally
lifted in 1971. However women's football in UK has not recovered to the
popularity it once had.
In the 1970s, Italy became the first country with professional women's
football players, albeit on a part-time basis. The first full-time
professional team was the United States national squad, and in 1992, Japan
was the first country to have a professional women's football league.
International competitions
In 1937, Dick, Kerr's played Edinburgh Ladies in "The Championship of Great
Britain and the World", but there was no formal international tournament
until 1982 when the first UEFA European Competition For Representative
Women's Teams was launched. The finals, in 1984, were won by Sweden.
The competition was succeeded by the UEFA Women's Championship. In 1987, the
final of the first competition was again won by Sweden. Since then, the
Women's Championship has been dominated by Germany, which has won five of
the six subsequent competitions.
The first Women's World Cup was held in China in 1991, and was won by the
USA. The third Cup, held in the United States in 1999, drew worldwide
television interest and a final in front of a 90,000-strong Los Angeles
crowd, where the home team won 5-4 on penalty kicks. The image of American
player Brandi Chastain celebrating the winning goal by stripping off her
shirt (to reveal a modest sports bra) and waving it around, and finally
sinking to her knees is not only one of the most recognized images in this
sport, but perhaps the most famous image of any women's sport.
Besides the United States and Germany (which won the 2003 World Cup), the
strongest women's teams have traditionally been Norway, China, and Sweden,
with nations like Brazil and Canada emerging as powers.
In 2002, FIFA inaugurated a women's youth championship, officially called
the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. The first event was hosted by
Canada. The final was an all-CONCACAF affair, with the USA defeating the
host Canadians 1-0 with an extra-time golden goal. The second event was held
in Thailand in 2004 and won by Germany.
Thanks for visiting this web page. Please come again soon.
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