New milestones for women’s football are being set during the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™ Qualifiers.
Next June, the FIFA Women’s World Cup will establish a few milestones when the finals are contested by 24 nations over 52 matches for the first time. The growth translates to one or two more nations per confederation, a reflection of the continued advancement made by women’s football across the world.
This week, the FIFA Women’s World Cup reaches a milestone in the preliminary phase as the competition sets a new record for participating nations. On Thursday 16 October 2014, Mexico became the 124th nation to participate in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 – but lost for the first time to Coata Rica.
In all, 129 nations will participate in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015, six more than the 123 that participated at Germany 2011. That marks nearly triple the participating nations from the inaugural competition for the first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 (just 45 nations).
Canada, who inaugurated its women’s national program in 1986, will serve as the perfect hosts for the FIFA Women’s World Cup final competition from 6 June to 5 July 2015. The competition will be hosted from coast to coast across Canada in six cities, culminating with the Final Match in Vancouver.
So far, 15 finalists have been confirmed, with seven more to be decided by 26 October. The last two finalists will be decided in November, followed by the Official Draw on 6 December.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 Qualifiers run 4 April 2013 to 27 November 2014. This month, the CAF African Women’s Championship runs 11-25 October, the CONCACAF Women’s Championship runs 15-26 October, and the OFC Women’s Nations Cup runs 21-25 October.
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