The current format of the tournament involves 16 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about three weeks;– this phase is often called the World Cup Finals. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s). The FIFA Women’s World Cup is recognized as the most important International competition in women’s football and is played amongst women’s national football teams of the member states of FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.

The first Women’s World Cup tournament, named the Women’s World Championship, was held in 1991, sixty-one years after the men’s first FIFA World Cup tournament in 1930. The 6 World Cup tournaments have been won by three different national teams. The next World Cup will be hosted by Canada in 2015.

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The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not contested because of World War II.

The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of about a month. A qualification phase, which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).

During the 18 tournaments that have been held, seven national teams have won the title. Brazil have won the World Cup a record five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. Italy, 2006 champions, won four titles, and Germany are next with three titles. Other former champions include Uruguay, winners of the inaugural tournament, and Argentina, with two titles each, and England and France, with one title each.

Spain won the 2010 World Cup final, 1-0, vs the Netherlands. Iniesta put the ball in the back of the net in overtime to put Spain on top of the World. Germany came in 3rd with a 3-2 win over Uruguay.

MISSION

Develop the Game, Touch the World, Build a Better Future. Played by millions around the world, football is the heart and soul of FIFA and as the guardian of this most cherished game, they have a great responsibility. This responsibility does not end with organizing the FIFA World Cup™ and other various world cup competitions; it extends to safeguarding the Laws of the Game, developing the game around the world, and to bringing hope to those less privileged. This is what we believe is the very essence of fair play and solidarity.

Their mission is to contribute towards building a better future for the world by using the power and popularity of football. This mission gives meaning and direction to each and every activity that FIFA is involved in, football being an integrated part of our society.

APPROACH

Develop the Game. Improve the game of football constantly and promote it globally in the light of its unifying, educational, cultural, and humanitarian values, particularly through youth and development programs. Football development means investing in people and society at large. Football is a school of life.

Touch the World. Take world-class football action and passion at all levels to every corner of the planet through our 208 member associations. The broad range of competitions shows the many faces of football, spearheaded by the FIFA World Cup™.

Build a Better Future. Football is no longer considered merely a global sport, but also as unifying force whose virtues can make an important contribution to society. We use the power of football as a tool for social and human development, by strengthening the work of dozens of initiatives around the globe to support local communities in the areas of peace-building, health, social integration, education, and more.

To that end, the sports growth in the past two decades has been nothing short of remarkable. In 1989, the U.S. Men’s National Team hadn’t played in a World Cup in 40 years and the U.S. Women’s program was just four years old. U.S. Soccer was playing games in small stadiums that were rarely filled to capacity. There were few games being televised (and none without commercials during play). There were no soccer-specific stadiums, and there were no high-level professional outdoor leagues of which to speak.

Since that time, things have evolved significantly. The U.S. MNT has qualified for their fifth consecutive World Cup, and advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2002 event. U.S. Soccer is a world leader in women’s soccer at every level, and the team has won two Women’s World Cups, along with two Olympic Gold Medals. The United States has also hosted three World Cups with the support of its members and strong organizational abilities.

Professionally, Major League Soccer recently celebrated its tenth season of play and continues to further the development of the American player, along with the three-tiered developmental league, the United Soccer Leagues. Perhaps most importantly of all, though, no fewer than five major soccer specific stadiums are in place now coast-to-coast with more facilities en route.

Founded in 1913, U.S. Soccer is one of the world’s first organizations to be affiliated with FIFA. U.S. Soccer has continued to grow in the 90-plus years since, and now has the largest membership among U.S. Olympic Committee national governing bodies.

The league is composed of four professional divisions: Primera División, Liga de Ascenso, Segunda División, and Tercera División. The Superliga is the top level of women’s football in Mexico. The federation has a world class training facility, Centro de Alto Rendimiento (CAR), for the national teams, located in the suburbs of southern Mexico City.

Prior to 1992, the tournament was officially called the European Champion Clubs Cup but was usually referred to as simply the European Cup or European Champions Cup. The competition was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champion club of each country. During the 1990s the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating a round-robin group phase and more teams. Europe’s strongest national leagues now provide up to four teams each for the competition. The UEFA Champions League should not be confused with the UEFA Europa League, formerly known as the UEFA Cup.

The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format, it begins in mid-July with three knockout qualifying rounds and a play-off round. The 10 surviving teams join 22 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout phase, which ends with the final match in May. Since the tournament changed name and structure in 1992, no club has managed consecutive wins. The winner of the UEFA Champions League qualifies for the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup (which replaced the Intercontinental Cup in 2005).

The title has been won by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holders are Real Madrid, who have won the competition nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested. Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A are marginally the most successful leagues, having amassed 12 wins, between two and three clubs respectively. The English league has produced 11 winners, but from four clubs. English teams were controversially banned from the competition for five years following the events at Heysel in 1985.