Attire

In September 2008 FC de Rakt women's team (FC de Rakt DA1) in the Netherlands made international headlines by swapping its old kit for a new one featuring short skirts and tight-fitting shirts. This innovation, which had been requested by the team itself, was initially vetoed by the Royal Dutch Football Association on the grounds that according to the rules of the game shorts must be worn by all players, both male and female; but this decision was reversed when it was revealed that the FC de Rakt team were wearing hot pants under their skirts, and were therefore technically in compliance. Denying that the kit change is merely a publicity stunt, club chairman Jan van den Elzen told Reuters:

The girls asked us if they could make a team and asked specifically to play in skirts. We said we'd try but we didn't expect to get permission for that. We've seen reactions from Belgium and Germany already saying this could be something for them. Many girls would like to play in skirts but didn't think it was possible.

21-year-old team captain Rinske Temming said:

We think they are far more elegant than the traditional shorts and furthermore they are more comfortable because the shorts are made for men. It's more about being elegant, not sexy. Female football is not so popular at the moment. In the Netherlands there's an image that it's more for men, but we hope that can change.

Youth and amateur

Youth tournamentsBesides the United States and Germany (which won the 2003 and 2007 World Cups), the strongest women's teams have traditionally been Norway, China, and Sweden, with nations like Brazil emerging as powers.

In 2002, FIFA inaugurated a women's youth championship, officially called the FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. The first event was hosted by Canada. The final was an all-CONCACAF affair, with the USA defeating the host Canadians 1-0 with an extra-time golden goal. The second event was held in Thailand in 2004 and won by Germany. The age limit was raised to 20, starting with the 2006 event held in Russia. Demonstrating the increasing global reach of the women's game, the winners of this event were North Korea. The tournament was renamed the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, effective with the 2008 edition won by the USA in Chile. The current champions are Germany, who won at home in 2010.

In 2008, FIFA instituted an under-17 world championship. The inaugural event, held in New Zealand, was won by North Korea. The current champions at this level are South Korea, who won their first worldwide FIFA title in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010.

[edit] Intercollegiate[edit] United StatesIn the United States, the intercollegiate sport began from physical education programs that helped establish organized teams. After sixty years of trying to gain social acceptance women's football was introduced to the college level. In the late 1970s, women's club teams started to appear on college campus, but it wasn't until the 1980s that they started to gain recognition and gained a varsity status. Brown University was the first college to grant full varsity level status to their women's soccer team. The Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women(AIWA), sponsored the first regional women's soccer tournament at college in the USA, which was held at Brown University. The first national level tournament was held at Colorado College, which gained official AIAW sponsorship in 1981. The 1990s saw greater participation mainly due to the Title IX of 23 June 1972, which increases school's budgets and their addition of women's scholarships.

"Currently there are over 700 intercollegiate women's soccer teams playing for many types and sizes of colleges and universities. This includes colleges and universities that are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA)."

Olympics

For the 1996 established Women's Olympic Football Tournament, given the general abandonment of amateur regulations in the Olympic Games in the 1990s, the national women's teams do not have restrictions due to professionalism or age; thus, the tournament becomes a back-to-back re-World Cup with the best teams of the previous year's World Cup plus the hosts. However, England and other British Home Nations are not eligible to compete as separate entities because the International Olympic Committee does not recognise their FIFA status as separate teams in competitions. The participation of UK men's and women's sides at the 2012 Olympic tournament was a bone of contention between the four national associations in the UK from 2005, when the Games were awarded to London, to 2009. England was strongly in favour of unified UK teams, while Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland were opposed, fearing adverse consequences for the independent status of the Home Nations within FIFA. Eventually, a compromise was reached by which England alone will field teams under the UK banner (officially "Great Britain") for the 2012 Games.

History Women's association football

The Munitionettes' CupIn August 1917 a tournament was launched for female munition workers' teams in North-East England. Its official title was the "Tyne Wear & Tees Alfred Wood Munition Girls Cup," but it was popularly known as "The Munitionettes' Cup." The first winners of the trophy were Blyth Spartans, who defeated Bolckow, Vaughan 5-0 in a replayed final tie at Middlesbrough on 18 May 1918. The tournament ran for a second year in season 1918-19, the winners being the ladies of Palmer's shipyard in Jarrow, who defeated Christopher Brown's of Hartlepool 1-0 at St James's Park in Newcastle on 22 March 1919.

The English Ladies' Football Association Challenge CupFollowing the Football Association ban on women's teams on 5 December 1921, the English Ladies' Football Association was formed. A silver cup was donated by the first president of the association, Len Bridgett. A total of 24 teams entered the first competition in the spring of 1922. The winners were Stoke Ladies who beat Doncaster and Bentley Ladies 3-1 on 24 June 1922.

The Championship of Great Britain and the WorldIn 1937 and 1938, the Dick, Kerr's Ladies F.C. played Edinburgh Ladies in the "Championship of Great Britain and the World". Edinburgh Ladies won in 1937, Dick, Kerr's Ladies F.C. 1938.

UEFA Women's ChampionshipUnofficial women's European tournaments for national teams were held in Italy in 1969 and 1979 and won by Italy and Denmark, but there was no formal international tournament until 1982 when the first UEFA European Competition For Representative Women's Teams was launched. The 1984 Finals was won by Sweden. This competition name was succeeded by the UEFA Women's Championship and today, is commonly referred to as the Women's Euro. Norway won, in the 1987 Finals. Since then, the UEFA Women's Championship has been dominated by Germany, which has won seven out of eight events, interrupted only by Norway in 1993. Germany's 2009 win was their fifth in a row.

Women's World Cup
Mia Hamm (Left) battles with German defender Kerstin Stegemann.Prior to the FIFA's 1991 establishment of the Women's World Cup, several unofficial world tournaments took place in 1970s and 1980s,[4] including the FIFA's Women's Invitation Tournament 1988, which was hosted in Taiwan.

The first Women's World Cup was held in the People's Republic of China in November 1991, and was won by the USA. The third Cup, held in the United States in June-July 1999, drew worldwide television interest and a final in front of a record-setting 90,000+ Los Angeles crowd, where the USA won 5-4 on penalty kicks against the People's Republic of China.

Copa Libertadores de Fútbol FemeninoThe Copa Libertadores de Fútbol Femenino (Women's Libertadores Cup) is the international women's football club competition for teams that play in CONMEBOL nations. The competition started in the 2009 season in response to the increased interest in women's football. It is the only CONMEBOL club competition for women, and it is sometimes called the Copa Libertadores Femenina.

Women's association football

Women's association football has been played for a long time, but was associated with charity games and physical exercise in the past before the breakthrough of organized women's association football came in the 1970s. Before the 1970s, association football was mostly seen as a men's game. Association football is the most prominent team sport for women in a few countries, and one of the few women's team sports with professional leagues.

The growth in women's football has seen major competitions being launched at both national and international level. For more information see Women's football around the world and International competitions in women's football respectively. Women's football faced many struggles throughout its fight for right. Although the women's football had its first golden age in the UK in early 1920s when some matches achieved over 50,000 spectators, but this was stopped on 5 December 1921 when England's Football Association voted to ban the game from grounds used by its member clubs. The ban was cancelled in July 1971.

Famous sayings

"Someone said 'football is a matter of life and death to you' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'." — Bill Shankly, 1981, on 'Live from Two', a Granada Television talk show hosted by Shelley Rohde.
"To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink." — J. B. Priestley, The Good Companions, 1928.
"Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win." — Gary Lineker, July 4, 1990 (after playing for England in a World Cup semi-final against Germany that was lost after a penalty shootout)
"If God had meant us to play football in the sky, he'd have put grass up there." — Brian Clough, 1991, when manager of Nottingham Forest, bemoaning the style of football known as the 'long ball game'.
"The ball is round and there are two goals." (Piłka jest okrągła, a bramki są dwie.) — Kazimierz Górski.
"All I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football." — Albert Camus, French philosopher, novelist and goalkeeper
"Football is a game of four halves." — Gary Lineker, referring to the home and away legs of cup competitions.
"The ball is round, the game lasts ninety minutes, and everything else is just theory." — Sepp Herberger, German coach.
"After the game is before the game" (Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel.) — Sepp Herberger, German coach.
"The people go to the stadium because they do not know how the game will end" (Die Leute gehen ins Stadion, weil sie nicht wissen, wie es ausgeht.) — Sepp Herberger, German coach.
"The first 90 minutes are the most important." — Bobby Robson.
"It's a funny old game." — Jimmy Greaves.
"Ein, zu zwei, zu drei - drun! (One, two, three - bang!)" — Hristo Stoichkov, Bulgarian footballer before the 1994 World Cup game between Bulgaria and Germany which Bulgaria surprisingly won.
"Football. Bloody hell." — Alex Ferguson, just after Manchester United won the 1999 UEFA Champions League final by scoring two goals in the 91st and 93rd minute of the game against FC Bayern Munich to win the match 2-1.
"Every disadvantage has its advantage", Johan Cruijff
"There's no such thing as an ugly goal. Ugly is to not score one." — Dadá Maravilha
"I do not play football, I score goals." — Dadá Maravilha
"In football, the worst blind is that one who only sees the ball" — Nelson Rodrigues
"We did it by playing football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football" — Jock Stein after Celtic won the 1967 European Cup

Society

n many countries, football has ingrained itself into the national culture, and many parts of life revolve around it. Many countries have daily football newspapers, as well as football magazines. The mood of regions and countries has been seen to be connected to football. Victory in a major tournament can bring happiness to the local community or country. Conversely defeat can lower spirits, and has been seen to be connected to mortality in the population. Withdrawal symptoms when the football season finished have also been reported. The economy can also be seen to be connected to major football tournaments, although the precise association is disputed.

The terms soccer mom and soccer dad, popularized in the United States, refer broadly to a demographic group of parents with school-age children playing football.

Arts, literature and filmThe popularity of football has been reflected in the arts, books and films. Books have been written dealing with the culture, such as violence, surrounding football, as well as detailed histories of events or rivalries. Many clubs have one or more fanzines, one example being TOOFIF.

Some consider that British football's image of a nasty working-class pursuit was changed into something far more respectable after Fever Pitch, a memoir by Nick Hornby about his life as an Arsenal fan, was published. The book also provided Hornby's big break. It was later adapted very loosely into a film.[citation needed] Numerous films have been made including Bend It Like Beckham, and The Football Factory, based on the book by John King, dealing with hooliganism and its relationship to socio-economic realities in England. In Germany, The Miracle of Bern (2003) revived the euphoria of the national team's victory in the 1954 FIFA World Cup and was a huge hit.

One film that has a historical basis is Escape to Victory. The film was based on the true World War II story where a Dynamo Kiev team, which defeated a German Luftwaffe team, was subsequently persecuted, and some team members executed. The story has also been recounted in the book Dynamo by Andy Dougan.

ReligionIt has been said that in some countries football has become the new religion (although this is a contentious issue)."Religious" aspects of sporting events include:

ritual pre-match, match and post-match traditions, ritualised group responses to cues such as on-pitch events, etc.
group chanting, singing, dancing.
the widespread use of symbols: team colours and logos take on a special importance and insulting these symbols is a grevious insult to the whole side. Wearing them marks the wearer as an adherent of a certain group and divides the world, almost cult-like, into "us" and "them".
idol-worship of heroes which is associated with relics: balls, shirts, numbers, etc. associated with players and events are highly valued.
pilgrimages: some fans will fly to another country to see a match live or travel in large groups to far-away places, caravaning, to see events.
deep emotional involvement, ecstatic participation which can go in various directions: cathartic, fun, violent, etc.
Football and other such sports lack some aspects usually associated with religion, however:

There is, in football, only a hint of transcendence. The memory of some players might be "immortal" and some teams "legendary," but there is little in the way of an idea or ideology that is found in religion.
There are no holy texts. There are famous sayings, but they do not carry authority for regulating belief or behaviour.
Prayers are common, but they are usually directed outside the system. Fans and players do not pray "to" football or "to" football heroes, but to the supernatural entities of other religions "about" football.
There are revered figures, but this is usually with a sense of irony. Owen Coyle is referred to as "God" by Burnley F.C. for example, because of his legendary role as a manager for the club, taking them from relegation favourites to the Premier League within 18 months of being appointed.
Religious beliefs are also in common use throughout football. Some players are religious and can be seen to cross themselves before a game. In Africa, traditional belief rituals are used to help teams win important games. In Argentina an official religion around the football player Diego Maradona has been formed called "Iglesia Maradoniana".

The German club Schalke 04 has brought out their own Bible titled Mit Gott auf Schalke (With God in Schalke). This is an edition of the common Christian Bible along with spiritual texts by Christian Schalke players and officials.[44] Football and the often "religious" Yoga are brought together - both aim at fairness so to say ahimsa.