Portal:Women's association football
Introduction
Women's association football, usually known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football when played by women's teams only. It is played at the professional level in numerous countries throughout the world and 176 national teams participate internationally.
The history of women's football has seen major competitions being launched at both the national and international levels. Women's football has faced many struggles throughout its history. Although its first golden age occurred in the United Kingdom in the early 1920s, with matches attracting large crowds (one match achieved over 50,000 spectators), The Football Association initiated a ban in 1921 in England that disallowed women's football games from taking place on the grounds used by its member clubs. This ban remained in effect until July 1971.
The inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup was held in China in 1991. Since then, the sport has gained in popularity. The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup Final in Canada was the most watched soccer game in United States history and over 1.12 billion people worldwide watched the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.
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Selected biography
Shinobu Ohno (大野 忍, Ōno Shinobu, born 23 January 1984 in Zama, Kanagawa) is a Japanese football player who plays as a forward. Her club team, as of 2013, is Lyon.
After playing in the U-19 and U-20 teams for a short period, Ohno joined the senior Japanese national team in 2003. Her first major tournament was the 2006 AFC Women's Asian Cup, where Japan placed fourth. The following year she played in the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, but Japan fell in the group stage. She also competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup, where she scored a goal in the group stage match against Mexico.
Selected league
The L.League (in Japanese: "L・リーグ", Officially "日本女子サッカーリーグ",Nihon Joshi Sakkā Rīgu) is the top flight of women's association football in Japan. It is the women's equivalent of the J.League, but not professional; however, some individual players are professional. The league consists of two divisions: division 1 has the nickname Pink League (なでしこリーグ, Nadeshiko Rīgu) and division 2 Challenge League (チャレンジリーグ, Charenji Rīgu). Since 2008 it has been sponsored by Plenus (株式会社プレナス), a fast food company based in Fukuoka, and are thus billed as Plenus Nadeshiko League and Plenus Challenge League.
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Members of the Kuwait women's national football team line up prior to their friendly match against Qatar, 2012.
Did you know?
- ... that the female footballer Bilgin Defterli decided to go to Germany because she saw no chance to play football in Turkey due to the dissolution of women's football leagues in 2003? (19 December 2013)
- ... that Birgit Prinz leads Germany in goals scored and caps
- ... that Arzu Karabulut currently plays for both German and Turkish football teams? (January 7, 2014)
- ... that the Netherlands reached the final of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2019 in only their second appearance at the tournament, having made their debut 4 years earlier.
- ... that Sydney Leroux (pictured) represented Canada before deciding to play for the United States women's national soccer team? (February 16, 2014)
- ... that two-time Olympic gold medalist Carli Lloyd is the only player to score the game-winning goal in two consecutive Olympic gold medal soccer matches? (March 4, 2014)
- ... that Megan Rapinoe (pictured) is the first soccer player, male or female, to score a rare Goal Olimpico at the Olympic Games?
Selected national team
The Saudi Arabia women's national football team would be the national team representing the kingdom in international football. However, the team does not yet exist because of influence of religious leaders in Saudi Arabia and systematic discrimination against women's sport, active opposition of political leaders and sport administrators. International pressure has come to bear on the country to field a women's team, and FIFA now allows the hijab to be worn in competition. A meeting at the College of Business Administration in Jeddah was seen as a possible first step in a team eventually being created.
Despite a lack of official support for a national team and women's football in general, women have self-organised their own teams and play games out of the sight of men. Created in 2006, King's United women football club was the first women's football club in the country. No official data is kept regarding participation rates for women football players.
In the news
- December 17: Wikinews interviews former Matilda's player Sarah Walsh about Australian women's soccer
- December 7: Wikinews interviews academic Steve Redhead about Australian women's soccer
- January 7: Abby Wambach wins FIFA World Player of the Year
- November 19: Canberra United lose first game since January 2011
- July 27: London Olympics organizers apologize after North Korea flag gaffe
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Ways to contribute
- Join: Add your name to the members list of the Women's football taskforce
- Contribute: Check the Taskforce's Open task list and see if there's a task you would like to contribute to.
- Assess existing articles: (see WP:WPFA for assistance) or nominate some of our existing B-class articles for Good Article (GA) or Featured Article (FA) status
- Improve existing articles: Work on expanding articles in Category:Women's association football biography stubs with relevant content and citations
- Project Tagging: Tag the talk pages for any articles that are within the scope of this project with {{Football|Women = yes}} and {{WikiProject Women's sport}}.
- Translate: the page of clubs/players from corresponding articles in other language Wikipedia articles to English Wikipedia, if we have them as red links.
- Recruit: editors who have contributed to articles related to women's football
