The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the first
FIFA Women's World Cup
The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior list of women's national association football teams, women's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Footb ...
, the world championship for
women's national football teams. It took place in
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
, China from 16 to 30 November 1991.
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
, football's international
governing body selected China as host nation as Guangdong had hosted a
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
world championship three years earlier, the
1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament. Matches were played in the provincial capital,
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
, as well as in
Foshan
Foshan (, ; Chinese: 佛山) is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the Pearl River Delta m ...
,
Jiangmen and
Zhongshan
Zhongshan ( zh, c=中山 ), alternately romanized via Cantonese as Chungshan, is a prefecture-level city in the south of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China. As of the 2020 census, the whole city with 4,418,060 inhabitants is n ...
. The competition was sponsored by
Mars, Incorporated, maker of
M&M's candy. With FIFA still reluctant to bestow their "World Cup" brand, the tournament was officially known as the 1st FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M's Cup.
It was won by the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, whose
captain April Heinrichs formed a forward line dubbed the "
Triple-Edged Sword" with
Carin Jennings and
Michelle Akers-Stahl. Jennings was named player of the tournament while Akers-Stahl's ten goals won the
Golden Boot. The United States defeated
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
2–1 in the final in front of a crowd of 63,000 people at Guangzhou's
Tianhe Stadium. Total attendance for the tournament was 510,000, an average per match of 19,615. In the opening match at the same stadium, Norway was defeated 4–0 by hosts
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
. Chinese defender
Ma Li scored the first goal in Women's World Cup history, while goalkeeper
Zhong Honglian, also of China, posted the first official "
clean sheet" in the tournament.
The 12 qualified teams were divided into three groups of four (A to C). The top two teams and the two best third-place finishers from the three groups advanced to the knockout round of eight teams. For only the first edition of the Women's World Cup, all matches lasted only 80 minutes, instead of the typical 90, and two points were awarded for a win (both of which would change in
1995).
Venues
Participating teams and officials
Qualification
The 1991 Women's World Cup had twelve participating teams compete in the final tournament. Each of the six FIFA confederations had at least one representative.
Squads
For a list of the squads that contended for the final tournament, see ''
1991 FIFA Women's World Cup squads''.
Match officials
For the first time in FIFA competition, six female officials were included. All functioned as
lineswomen, except for
Cláudia Vasconcelos who took charge of the third place play-off; becoming the first woman to referee a match sanctioned by FIFA.
Tournament review
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
's technical report demonstrates that, after the tournament, players and officials were undecided whether to persist with 80-minute matches, or to change to 90 minutes in line with men's football. Opinion was also divided about the suitability of using a size five
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
. Some teams reported difficulty in sourcing good quality equipment in the correct size.
The tournament was considered a major success in the quality of play and attendances at the games. FIFA president
João Havelange
Jean-Marie Faustin Godefroid "João" de Havelange (, ; 8 May 1916 – 16 August 2016) was a Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who was the seventh president of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His tenure as president is the second longest in ...
wrote that:
The perceived success of the tournament was a significant factor in the subsequent inclusion of women's football in the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
.
Sue Lopez reported that although attendances were very high, many tickets were complimentary. The "novelty factor" of women from foreign lands playing football also encouraged local people to attend.
Draw
The draw for the group stage was held on 14 September 1991 at the
Tianhe Stadium in
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
, China. The draw was part of a televised two-hour live show, featuring songs in both Chinese and English from the female singers
Zhang Qiang (Beijing),
Lin Ping (Guangzhou),
Jenny Tseng (Hong Kong) and (Taiwan).
Group stage
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Ranking of third-placed teams
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
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----
Semi-finals
----
Third place play-off
Final
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Awards 1991
/ref>
Statistics
Goalscorers
Assists
Tournament ranking
See also
* ''''
References
;General references
*
*
External links
FIFA.com
FIFA Technical Report (Part 1)
an
(Part 2)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:1991 Fifa Women's World Cup
FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments
International women's association football competitions hosted by China
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...
1991 in Chinese football
November 1991 sports events in China
1991 in Chinese women's sport
Sports competitions in Guangdong
1991 in Guangzhou