The 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup, the fifth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was an international football competition for women held in China from 10 to 30 September 2007. Originally, China was to host the 2003 edition, but the outbreak of SARS in that country forced that event to be moved to the United States. FIFA immediately granted the 2007 event to China, which meant that no new host nation was chosen competitively until the voting was held for the 2011 Women's World Cup.

The tournament opened with a record-breaking match in Shanghai, as Germany beat Argentina 11–0 to register the biggest win and the highest scoring match in Women's World Cup history, records which stood until 2019. The tournament ended with Germany defeating Brazil 2–0 in the final, without conceding even a single goal in the entire tournament. The Germans became the first national team in FIFA Women's World Cup history to retain their title.

The golden goal rule for extra time in knockout matches was eliminated by FIFA, although no matches went to extra time (and therefore, none required a penalty shoot-out).

Teams

The qualified teams, listed by region, with numbers in parentheses indicating final positions in the FIFA Women's World Ranking before the tournament were:

{| table width=72%

| width=60% valign=top |

;Africa (CAF)

  • (24)
  • (47)

;Asia (AFC)

  • (11) (host nation – automatically qualified)
  • (15)
  • (5)
  • (10) (defeated Mexico in AFC–CONCACAF playoffs)

;North America, Central America & Caribbean (CONCACAF)

  • (9)
  • (1)

| width=40% valign=top |

;Europe (UEFA)

  • (4)
  • (3)
  • (2)
  • (6)
  • (12)

;Oceania (OFC)

;South America (CONMEBOL)

  • (29)
  • (8)

|}

Venues

thumb|The [[Hongkou Football Stadium in Shanghai (pictured) hosted the final.]]

The venues selected to host the competition were:

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="font-size:95%; margin:0.5em 0"

|+ style="text-align:left"| List of 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup venues

! scope="col" | Host city || Stadium ||

|-

! scope="row" style="background:#f8f9fa" | Tianjin

| Tianjin Olympic Centre || 60,000

|-

! scope="row" style="background:#f8f9fa" | Wuhan

| Wuhan Sports Center || 60,000

|-

! scope="row" style="background:#f8f9fa" | Hangzhou

| Huanglong Sports Center || 51,000

|-

! scope="row" style="background:#f8f9fa" | Chengdu

| Chengdu Sports Centre || 40,000

|-

! scope="row" style="background:#f8f9fa" | Shanghai

| Hongkou Football Stadium || 33,000

|}

Squads

Match officials

FIFA's Refereeing Department selected 14 referees and 22 assistant referees from around the world to officiate the 32 games that made up the final tournament. Candidate referees for the tournament were placed under scrutiny from 2005 onwards and attended a series of training camps. Candidates refereeing standards were regularly monitored at various tournaments around the globe before a final list was prepared. This was followed by a training camp in the Canary Islands in January 2007 and a final period of preparation and training at the home of FIFA in Zürich in May. No referees were chosen from the Oceania Football Confederation at the finals. The original selection group was made up of 42 entrants, 6 of which failed fitness tests resulting in the final group of 36 being confirmed for China. The United States was the only country represented by two referees.

FIFA automatically seeded the host and defending champions, slotting China and Germany into Group D and Group A, respectively. The FIFA Women's World Ranking for March 2007 was used to determine the teams to occupy the other seeded positions, B1 and C1. United States were ranked first, Germany second and Norway third, so the United States and Norway were also seeded.

Also, no two teams from the same confederation could draw each other, except for those from UEFA, where a maximum of two teams from UEFA could be drawn into the same group. Group B quickly became dubbed the group of death since three of the top five teams in the world were drawn in this group – the USA (1st), Sweden (3rd) and North Korea (5th), according to the June 2007 FIFA Women's World Rankings, the last to be released before the tournament. The same four teams were drawn together in Group A in the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup,

  1. Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat);
  2. Goal difference in all group matches;
  3. Number of goals scored in all group matches;
  4. Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
  5. Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
  6. Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
  7. Fair play criteria based on yellow and red cards received;
  8. Drawing of lots.

|}

Group A

----

----

Group B

The four teams were also paired in the same group in 2003.

----

----

Group C

----

----

Group D

----

----

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

----

----

----

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Final

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. FIFA.com shortlisted ten goals for users to vote on as the Goal of the Tournament. The Most Entertaining Team award was also decided by a poll on FIFA.com.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto; text-align:center;"

|-

!style="width:33%"|Golden Ball

!style="width:33%"|Silver Ball

!style="width:33%"|Bronze Ball

|-

| Marta

| Birgit Prinz

| Cristiane

|-

!Golden Shoe

!Silver Shoe

!Bronze Shoe

|-

| Marta

| Abby Wambach

| Ragnhild Gulbrandsen

|-

|7 goals, 5 assists

|6 goals, 1 assist

|6 goals, 0 assists

|-

!colspan="3"|Best Goalkeeper

|-

|colspan="3"| Nadine Angerer

|-

!colspan="3"|Goal of the Tournament

|-

|colspan="3"| Marta

|-

|colspan="3"| for 4–0 in Semi-finals vs United States (27 September)

|-

!colspan="3"|FIFA Fair Play Award

|-

|colspan="3"|

|-

!colspan="3"|Most Entertaining Team

|-

|colspan="3"|

|}

All-Star Team

{| class="wikitable"style=white-space:nowrap

|-

! Goalkeepers

! Defenders

! Midfielders

! Forwards

|-

| align=left valign=top |

Nadine Angerer <br />

Bente Nordby

| align=left valign=top |

Ariane Hingst <br />

Li Jie <br />

Ane Stangeland <br />

Kerstin Stegemann

| align=left valign=top |

Daniela <br />

Formiga <br />

Kelly Smith <br />

Renate Lingor <br />

Ingvild Stensland <br />

Kristine Lilly

| align=left valign=top |

Lisa De Vanna <br />

Marta <br />

Cristiane <br />

Birgit Prinz

|}

Statistics

Goalscorers

Assists

Tournament ranking

Marketing

Sponsorships

Source:

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!FIFA partners

!National Supporters

|-

| style="vertical-align:top" |

  • Adidas
  • Coca-Cola
  • Emirates
  • Hyundai–Kia
  • Sony
  • Visa

| style="vertical-align:top;" |

  • Du-Bang Insurance
  • Tencent QQ

|}

Coverage

Numerous TV stations around the world provided coverage of the tournament. One notable example is the Chinese-language channel CCTV-5, which also broadcast over the internet via TVUnetworks.

Monetary rewards

For the first time in FIFA Women's World Cup history, all teams received monetary bonuses according to the round they reached (all in USD):

  • Champions: $1,000,000
  • Runners-up: $800,000
  • Third place: $650,000
  • Fourth place: $550,000
  • Quarter-finalists: $300,000
  • First round exit: $200,000

Other rewards

UEFA used the FIFA Women's World Cup as its qualifying tournament for the 2008 Olympic women's tournament. The best three performing UEFA teams would qualify for the Olympics. Originally it was thought that, should England make the top three European teams, they would compete under the United Kingdom banner. However, on 6 September 2007, FIFA issued a press release indicating that England were ineligible to participate in the 2008 Olympics as England does not have its own Olympic Committee.

For the determination of the ranking only first through fourth place, quarterfinal elimination or group phase elimination counted. If there was a need to make a distinction between teams eliminated in the quarterfinal or between teams eliminated in the group phase these teams would meet in a play-off match. In no case would the points or goal difference count for teams eliminated before the semi-final.

Germany and Norway qualified for the Olympics at the World Cup, whereas Denmark and Sweden had to enter a play-off for the third Olympics spot. Sweden won both legs of the playoffs with a total of 7–3 on aggregate to qualify for the Olympics.

Controversies

Kenneth Heiner-Møller and Danish players accused the Chinese hosts of harassment and covert surveillance prior to China's first round match against Denmark. China's Swedish coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors and her assistant Pia Sundhage were unaware of the incidents and Heiner-Møller absolved them of any blame, although he refused to shake hands after the match.

Notes

References

  • FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007, FIFA.com
  • FIFA Technical Report
  • Photos: FIFA Women's World Cup China 2007 on Time.com