Portal:Women's association football

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Introduction

UEFA Women's Cup Final 2005 at Potsdam

Women's association football, also commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the most prominent team sport played by women around the globe. 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, when one match achieved over 50,000 spectators, The Football Association initiated a ban in 1921 that disallowed women's football games from the grounds used by its member clubs. The ban stayed in effect until July 1971.

Selected general articles

The FIFA Women's World Rankings for football were introduced in 2003, with the first rankings published in March of that year, as a follow-on to the existing Men's FIFA World Rankings. They attempt to compare the strength of internationally active women's national teams at any given time. Read more...
Bend It Like Beckham is a 2002 British family romantic comedy sports film produced, written and directed by Gurinder Chadha, and starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anupam Kher, Shaznay Lewis and Archie Panjabi.

The film's title refers to the football player David Beckham, and his skill at scoring from free kicks by curling the ball past a wall of defenders. It follows the 18-year-old daughter of Punjabi Sikhs in London. She is infatuated with football but her parents have forbidden her to play because she is a girl. She joins a local women's team, which makes its way to the top of the league. Read more...
Association football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 and 1932. Women's football was added to the official program in Atlanta 1996. Read more...
Offside (Persian: آفساید‎) is a 2006 Iranian film directed by Jafar Panahi, about girls who try to watch a World Cup qualifying match but are forbidden by law because of their gender. Female fans are not allowed to enter football stadiums in Iran on the grounds that there will be a high risk of violence or verbal abuse against them. The film was inspired by the director's daughter, who decided to attend a game anyway. The film was shot in Iran but its screening was banned there. Read more...
Gracie is a 2007 American sports drama film directed by Davis Guggenheim. It stars Carly Schroeder as Gracie Bowen, Dermot Mulroney as Bryan Bowen, Elisabeth Shue as Lindsay Bowen, Jesse Lee Soffer as Johnny Bowen, and Andrew Shue as Coach Owen Clark.

Gracie takes place in New Jersey, United States in 1978, before 1972's Title IX had taken much effect in women's college sports and when organized women's soccer was still very rare in the United States. Gracie, the film's central protagonist, overcomes the loss of her brother by convincing her family and school to allow her to play varsity soccer on an all-boys team. The story is partially based on the childhood experiences of Elisabeth Shue, who was one of the producers in addition to being the wife of Davis Guggenheim, the director, as well as a cast member. Read more...
Keeping Score is a documentary series featuring American soccer players Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, and Crystal Dunn that was broadcast by Fullscreen in 2016. The series followed the players' experiences in the lead up to their participation at the 2016 Rio Olympics and addressed equality for women in the sports industry and the wage gap for American women workers in general as well as race. Read more...
World map of FIFA's six intercontinental governing bodies.

The following article gives a list of Women's association football confederations, sub-confederations and associations around the world.

For international competitions see the article International competitions in women's football. Read more...
Nine for IX is the title for a series of documentary films which aired on ESPN, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Title IX. The documentaries were produced by ESPN Films in conjunction with espnW, and were intended to have the same creative, story-driven aspect that ESPN Films' other series, 30 for 30, has, with the series focusing on captivating stories of women in sports told through the lens of female filmmakers. The first film, Venus Vs., premiered on July 2, 2013. Read more...
Just for Kicks is an American comedy-drama series that aired on the Nickelodeon television network as a part of the channel's TEENick television lineup. The series is about a group of girls on a soccer team set in New York City.

Created by Alana Sanko and developed by Whoopi Goldberg, the series was first titled Head to Toe, and then The Power Strikers, but its title was finally changed in 2005 to Just for Kicks. The series premiered in January 2006 on Nickelodeon UK, and in April 2006 on Nickelodeon in the United States. The series is produced by Brookwell McNamara Entertainment. Read more...
FIFA 18 is a football simulation video game in the FIFA series, developed and published by Electronic Arts and was released worldwide on 29 September 2017 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. It is the 25th instalment in the FIFA series. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo appears as the cover athlete of the regular edition; Brazilian footballer Ronaldo appears on the cover of the Icon edition of the game.

FIFA 18 is the second instalment in the series to use the Frostbite 3 game engine, although some versions of the game use a different game engine. The PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows and Xbox One versions include a continuation of "The Journey" a story-based mode that was originally in FIFA 17 entitled "The Journey: Hunter Returns". The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, known as FIFA 18: Legacy Edition, do not contain any new gameplay features aside from updated kits and squads. Read more...
The following are lists of people who play football. Read more...
The Four Nations Tournament is an invitational women's football tournament taking place in various cities of China since 1998. Since 2002, it has been held every year except for 2010. United States, Norway, China, North Korea, and Canada are the only winners of various editions of this tournament. The United States has been the most successful, winning seven editions of the tournament; with China winning six editions and Norway winning two editions. Read more...
FIFA 19 is a football simulation video game developed by EA Vancouver as part of Electronic Arts' FIFA series. Announced on 6 June 2018 for its E3 2018 press conference, it was released on 28 September 2018 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows. It is the 26th installment in the FIFA series. As with FIFA 18, Cristiano Ronaldo and Hazrol Box v4 appears as the cover athlete of the regular edition.

The game features the UEFA club competitions for the first time, including the UEFA Champions League. Martin Tyler and Alan Smith return as regular commentators, while the new commentary team of Derek Rae and Lee Dixon feature in the UEFA competitions mode. Composer Hans Zimmer and rapper Vince Staples recorded a new remix of the UEFA Champions League anthem specifically for the game. The character Alex Hunter, who first appeared in FIFA 17 returns for the third and final installment of "The Journey", entitled, "The Journey: Champions". Read more...
Michael Owen's WLS 2000 (known as Mia Hamm Soccer 64 in North America) is a association football-based sports video game developed by Silicon Dreams Studio and published by THQ for Nintendo 64. Released on 10 November 2000, the game stars English footballer Michael Owen.

Michael Owen's WLS 2000 has received reskinned versions for releases outside the United Kingdom, primarily Mia Hamm Soccer 64, which stars Mia Hamm, and was released in North America by SouthPeak Interactive. Other international versions include RTL WLS 2000 in Germany, in cooperation with RTL Television, and Telefoot Soccer 2000 in France, in cooperation with Téléfoot; both also published by THQ. Read more...
The Algarve Cup, nicknamed the Mini FIFA Women's World Cup, is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football hosted by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Held annually in the Algarve region of Portugal since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and longest-running women's international football events.

The most successful teams have been the United States, with ten titles, followed by Norway and Sweden, with four. Norway's titles all came in the early years of the tournament, while the USA has won all its titles since 2000, including nine in thirteen years since 2003. Germany has won three times, and China has won twice. The USA, Norway and Germany are the only nations to have won both the FIFA Women's World Cup and the Algarve Cup. Read more...
This is a complete list of national teams in women's association football, arranged alphabetically within their confederations. Read more...
This article lists all international competitions in women's football (soccer). The competitions included are for national teams as well as club sides. Competitions past and present are included. Note that some competitions may not be directly run by the governing body for the region.

For domestic competitions see the article Women's football around the world. Read more...
Football Under Cover is a 2008 German/Iranian documentary film directed by David Assmann and Ayat Najafi. It follows the attempts of German Marlene Assmann and Iranian Ayat Najafi to organise a football match between Assmann's team BSV Aldersimspor and the Iranian national woman's team. Read more...
The Kicks is an American teen comedy television series created by Alex Morgan and David Babcock. Babcock also serves as executive producer alongside James Frey. The pilot premiered on Amazon Instant Video on June 26, 2015. Read more...
The Cyprus Cup is a global invitational tournament for national teams in women's association football. It has been held annually in Cyprus since 2008. Although the competition takes place in Cyprus, the hosts have yet to take part in the competition.

It is played in late February or early March, at the same time as the Algarve Cup and the SheBelieves Cup. Read more...
Bend It Like Beckham the Musical is a musical with music by Howard Goodall, lyrics by Charles Hart, and a book by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges. Based on the 2002 film of the same name, the musical made its West End and world premiere at the Phoenix Theatre in May 2015. Read more...

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Selected images

FC de Rakt DA1 (2008/2009)
First Match of the British Ladies' Football Club, March 1895
A Welsh women's football team pose for a photograph in 1959
Japanese high-school girls playing football in their traditional hakama with one team wearing sashes. (c. 1920)
Iran vs Turkey in 2010 Youth Olympics
UEFA Women's Cup Final 2005 at Potsdam
Mia Hamm (left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann.