2015 Women’s World Cup

By: Gilda Doria

Link Back to Main Page Women’s Soccer in the US

***Overview

Plans are underway in Canada for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. It is set to run from June 6^th to July 5^th. Participating cities include Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, and Moncton.The 2015 Women’s World Cup is set to be played on artificial turf in five of the six stadiums used for the event in Canada. Many women’s players are furious as they feel like it is act of discrimination since this would never be deemed appropriate on the men’s side [1]. Canada has previous experience hosting big tournaments including the 1987 U-16 World Championship, 2002 FIFA U-19 Women’s World Championship, and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Recently, Canada invested 351 million dollars in preparation for both the 2015 Women’s World Cup and 2014 U-20 Women’s World Cup. Canadian FA president Victor Montagliani has pledged to put on the best ever women’s World Cup in 2015 which, he says, will be a “game changer” for the sport in his country. Canada has invested $309 million in infrastructure ,with two new stadia and the upgrading of four others. A further $42 million has been contributed towards the expenses of the event which will take place in six cities covering five time zones.

The economic impact of hosting the event is expected to be about $235 million in revenue for the country and the creation of 1,200 full-time jobs.The development of women’s soccer across the globe has allowed for more competition among the 7 groups during World Cup qualification rounds this time around. The host team, Canada, will be the only team with an automatic bid, while the top finishers in each group will also secure spots. The biggest change from the previous World Cup is that the tournament has now expanded from 16 to 24 teams. This has hence altered the number of games played from 32 to 52. The first game of this Women’s World Cup will be set to kick off from Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton in which Canada will be set to be involved in [6].

Here is the group breakdown [4]:

–Predicted winners are in bold and number of teams in each category in parantheses:

Category 1- EUROPE (8)

Europe will have 8 qualifiers go to the 2015 Women’s World Cup out of 42 nations. The four top runners-up go into a four-team tournament of two-leg series with the winner earning the last spot. The last place finisher in each group will not be taken into consideration when trying to determine the four top runners-up. This will prevent teams from drowning lesser caliber teams in goals to secure their second place finish through goal differential.

Group 1:

Germany (2003/2007 World Champions and recently 2013 UEFA Cup Champions)

Others: Russia, Croatia, Ireland, Slovakia, and Slovenia

Group 2:

Italy

Others: Spain, Estonia, Romania, Macedonia, and Czechoslovakia

Group 3:

Denmark

Others: Switzerland, Serbia, Iceland, Israel, and Malta

Group 4:

Sweden

Others: Scotland, Faroe Islands, Bosnia, Poland, Herzegovinia, and Northern Ireland

Group 5:

Norway

Others: Albania, Belgium, Greece, Netherlands, and Portugal

Group 6:

England

Others: Belarus, Turkey, Montenegro, Ukraine, and Wales

Group 7:

France

Others: Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, and Belgium

Category 2- CONCACAF (3.5 and Canada)

USA

Others: N/A

The standard way of qualification has always been the Gold Cup. Three teams will go right of the cup with remaining fourth team battling for a spot with a South American national team.

Category 3- ASIA (5)

The 5 spots will be secured at the Women’s Asian Cup in May. Do not look for North Korea in this 2015 World Cup. They have been banned due to violations in World Cup 2011. Several players had tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (doping). This is a huge opportunity for other teams who have battled it out with North Korea going into the final rounds of the tournament. It will be the first time since 1995 that North Korea does not go to a World Cup.

Australia, China, Japan, and South Korea

Others: Jordan, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam

Category 4- SOUTH AMERICA (2.5)

Brazil

Others: N/A

Category 5- OCENIA (1)

A tournament will be held next September with only one team making it to Canada in 2015.

New Zealand

Others: N/A

***Past winners [3]

Past World Cup finals (European teams in bold)
2011: Japan 2-2 United States (aet, 3-1 pens); Frankfurt, Germany
2007: Germany 2-0 Brazil; Shanghai, China
2003: Germany 1-0 Sweden (aet, golden goal); Carson, United States
1999: United States 0-0 China (aet, 5-4 pens); Pasadena, United States
1995: Norway 2-0 Germany; Stockholm, Sweden
1991: United States 2-1 Norway; Guangzhou, China

Past Olympic medallists (European teams in bold)
2012: United States (gold), Japan (silver), Canada (bronze); London, United Kingdom
2008: United States (gold), Brazil (silver), Germany (bronze); Beijing, China
2004: United States (gold), Brazil (silver), Germany (bronze); Athens, Greece
2000: Norway (gold), United States (silver), Germany (bronze); Sydney, Australia
1996: United States (gold), China (silver), Norway (bronze); Atlanta, United States

A PDF of 2015 Women’s World Cup Game Schedule can be found by visiting this site: http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/02/03/96/71/fwwc2015_matchschedule-letter_15032013.pdf