The Algarve Cup is an invitational tournament for national teams in

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and about 200 national teams partic ...

hosted by the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation ( , FPF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (, UPF) by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon Footbal ...

(FPF). Held annually in the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

region of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

since 1994, it is one of the most prestigious and longest-running women's international football events and has been nicknamed the ''"Mini FIFA Women's World Cup"''. The most successful teams have been 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 ...

, with ten titles, followed by

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 ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

with five, and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

with four. The United States has won all its titles since 2000, including nine in thirteen years since 2003.

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 ...

has won twice. The United States, Norway, Germany, and Spain are the only nations to have won both the

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 ...

and the Algarve Cup. The Algarve Cup, as an annual event featuring most of the world's top women's football teams, has no parallel in the men's game, given that there are fewer professional women's leagues and thus fewer scheduling conflicts. It is played in late February or early March, at the same time as the

Arnold Clark Cup The Arnold Clark Cup is an invitational women's association football tournament hosted by the Football Association in England, starting in 2022. It is named after car retailer Arnold Clark, who signed a multi-year sponsorship deal. ITV acts as t ...

, the Cup of Nations, the Cyprus Women's Cup, the Istria Cup, the Pinatar Cup, the

SheBelieves Cup The SheBelieves Cup is an invitational women's association football, women's soccer tournament held in different cities in the United States in late February or early March. In its first three years (2016, 2017, and 2018), it was contested by t ...

, the Tournoi de France, the Turkish Women's Cup and the Women's Revelations Cup.

Format

From 2002 to 2014, 12 teams were invited, with the top eight competing for the championship. The teams were divided into three groups of four — A, B and C. Group C was added in 2002 to provide second-tier teams with high-level match experience every year. The teams first played round-robin within their pool. Then the placement round proceeded as follows: *11th place: The two bottom teams in Group C played one game. *9th place: The Group C runner-up played one game against the lower-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B. *7th place: The Group C winner played one game against the higher-ranked of the fourth-place teams from Groups A and B. *5th place: The third-place teams from Groups A and B played one game. *3rd place: The second-place teams from Groups A and B played one game. *1st place: The first-place teams from Groups A and B played one game. In 2015, Group C teams became eligible for the final, which is now played between the two best group winners. If teams are tied on points, finishing positions will be determined by the following tie-breaking criteria in the following order: # number of points obtained in the matches among the teams in question # goal difference in all the group matches # number of goals scored in all the group matches # fair-play ranking in all the group matches # FIFA ranking The placement round is now as follows: *11th place match: 3rd best 4th placed team vs. 2nd best 4th placed team *9th place match: best 4th placed team vs. 3rd best 3rd placed team *7th place match: 2nd best 3rd placed team vs. best 3rd placed team *5th place match: 3rd best 2nd placed team vs. 2nd best 2nd placed team *3rd place match: 3rd best group winner vs. best 2nd placed team *Final: Best group winner vs. 2nd best group winner

Results

;Notes

Teams reaching the top four

Medals

* Share gold in 2018 Algarve Cup.

Participating nations

Statistics

Teams

* Source:

Individuals

References

External links

Official website
FPF.pt (only in Portuguese)
Algarve Cup on WomensSoccerUnited.com

Full results and history

FPF – Algarve Cup match results 1994–2015
{{International women's football Sport in Albufeira International association football competitions in Europe International association football competitions hosted by Portugal Sport in Algarve Recurring sporting events established in 1994 International women's association football invitational tournaments 1994 establishments in Portugal February in sports March in sports