Identifying Best Practice in Women's Football - FIFA/CIES ...

1970 the General Assembly of the DFB instructed its Executive Committee to constructguidelines for women’s football and by 1974, the 1st Club championship in Germany wasplayed. 10 Again, it is a similar theme across the major countries of Europe; the nationalassociations reversing their previous institutional discouragement to include the growingparticipation of women’s football into officially sanctioned leagues. The football associationof Denmark first incorporated women’s football in 1972 despite clubs such as BK Feminabeing formed as early as 1959. 11 The English FA allowed women back on to their fields againin 1971, although did not begin a sanctioned league until 1993. 12 France began leaguematches in 1973/74. 13 While not all countries banned women from playing such as Norwayand Sweden, the growth of women’s football was closely tied to the women’s movement ofthe 1960s and 70s, and focused on women’s right to participate, dragging the associationstoward change. 14"In the 1980s and 90s, the international institutions increasingly took hold of thewomen’s game by introducing the official European Championship in 1990, the first WorldCup in 1991 and the first Olympic tournament in 1996.2.1.2 Increase in Women’s Football ParticipationWhile institutions have created structure for the game on a global, and pan-European level,the world has also seen a major growth in participation. In 2006, an estimated 26 millionfemales played football, of whom 4.1 million were registered players. 15 Although thatrepresented only 10 percent of all football players in the world, the trend shows that femaleparticipation is on the rise and those ratios are changing towards more participation offemales: The number of female players had increased by 19% since 2000 and the number ofregistered players by 54%. This means that women’s football grew more than twice as muchas the male sport (21%) in the same period of time 16 . The number of national teams, anindicator for the worldwide development of the game, has also increased dramatically. Within""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""10 Willi Hink, “Women’s Football in Country of the World & European Champions.” UEFA 5 th Conference onWomen’s Football. UEFA. Oslo, Norway. 2005.11 Anne Brus and E. Trangbaek, ‘Asserting the Right to Play’, Soccer & Society, 4, 2/3 (2003): 95-111.12 FIFA, National Associations Questionnaire. Conducted 28, May 2004.13 ibid.14 Eivind Å. Skille, “Biggest but smallest: female football and the case of Norway,” Soccer & Society, 9 (2008):522. Jonny Hjelm and Eva Olofsson, “A Breakthrough: Women’s Football in Sweden,” Soccer & Society, 4(2003): 182.15 FIFA Big Count 2006, FIFA Communications Division, Information Services, 31 May 2007.16 ibid.!8"