2019 FIFA Women's World Cup

2019 FIFA Women's World Cup

Coupe du Monde Féminine de la FIFA – France 2019
Tournament details
Host country	France
Dates	7 June – 7 July
Teams	24 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	9 (in 9 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	United States (4th title)
Runners-up	Netherlands
Third place	Sweden
Fourth place	England
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	146 (2.81 per match)
Attendance	1,131,312 (21,756 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ellen White Alex Morgan Megan Rapinoe (6 goals each)
Best player(s)	Megan Rapinoe
Best young player	Giulia Gwinn
Best goalkeeper	Sari van Veenendaal
Fair play award	France
← 2015 2023 →

The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It took place between 7 June and 7 July 2019, with 52 matches staged in nine cities in France,^[1] which was awarded the right to host the event in March 2015, the first time the country hosted the tournament. The tournament was the first Women's World Cup to use the video assistant referee (VAR) system. This was the second and last edition with 24 teams before expanding to 32 teams for the 2023 tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

The United States entered the competition as defending champions after winning the 2015 edition in Canada and successfully defended their title with a 2–0 victory over the Netherlands in the final. In doing so, they secured their record fourth title and became the second nation, after Germany, to have successfully retained the title. Unlike Germany, however, this victory held a distinction as the United States won both 2015 and 2019 tournaments under one manager, Jill Ellis. It was the first time in 81 years since Vittorio Pozzo did so for the Italian men's team at the 1934 and 1938 FIFA World Cups.

The matches were broadcast globally and attracted a combined audience of 1.12 billion people.

On 6 March 2014, FIFA announced that bidding had begun for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Member associations interested in hosting the tournament had to submit a declaration of interest by 15 April 2014, and provide the complete set of bidding documents by 31 October 2014.^[2] As a principle, FIFA preferred the 2019 Women's World Cup and the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup to be hosted by the same member association, but reserved the right to award the hosting of the events separately.

Initially, five countries indicated interest in hosting the events: France, England, South Korea, New Zealand and South Africa. Both England and New Zealand registered expressions of interest by the April 2014 deadline,^[3][4] but in June 2014 it was announced that each would no longer proceed.^[5][6] South Africa registered an expression of interest by the April 2014 deadline;^[7] but later decided to withdraw prior to the final October deadline.^[8] Both Japan and Sweden had also expressed interest in bidding for the 2019 tournament, but Japan chose to focus on the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics,^[9] whilst Sweden decided to focus on European U-17 competitions instead.^[10][11] France and South Korea made official bids for hosting the tournament by submitting their documents by 31 October 2014.^[12][13]

On 19 March 2015, France officially won the bid to host the Women's World Cup and the U-20 Women's World Cup.^[14] The decision came after a vote by the FIFA Executive Committee.^[15] Upon the selection, France became the third European nation to host the Women's World Cup (following Sweden and Germany), and the fourth country to host both the men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the men's tournament in 1938 and 1998. By the time France hosted the women's World Cup, the country had also earlier hosted the UEFA Euro 2016, which served as a precursor for France's preparation to host this competition.

Vote	First ballot
France	17
South Korea	5

The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Council on 13–14 October 2016.^[16] The slots for each confederation are unchanged from those of the previous tournament except the slot for the hosts has been moved from CONCACAF (Canada) to UEFA (France).^[17]

• AFC (Asia): 5 slots
• CAF (Africa): 3 slots
• CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 3 slots
• CONMEBOL (South America): 2 slots
• OFC (Oceania): 1 slot
• UEFA (Europe): 8 slots
• Host nation: 1 slot
• CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off: 1 slot

Qualifying matches started on 3 April 2017 and ended on 1 December 2018.

A total of 24 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[18] Each team's FIFA Rankings in March 2019 are shown in parentheses.^[19]

Chile, Jamaica, Scotland and South Africa made their Women's World Cup debuts,^[20] while Italy took part in the event for the first time since 1999 and Argentina took part for the first time since 2007. Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden and the United States qualified for their eighth World Cup, continuing their streak of qualifying for every World Cup held so far.

Twelve cities were candidates.^[21] The final nine stadiums were chosen on 14 June 2017; Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes, Stade Marcel-Picot in Nancy, and Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps in Auxerre were cut.^[22]

The semi-finals and final were played at Parc Olympique Lyonnais in the Lyon suburb of Décines-Charpieu, with 58,000 capacity, while the opening match was played at Parc des Princes in Paris.^[23] The 2019 tournament is the first under the 24-team format to be played without double-header fixtures.^[24]

Lyon (Décines-Charpieu)	Paris	Nice	Rennes
Parc Olympique Lyonnais (Stade de Lyon)	Parc des Princes	Allianz Riviera (Stade de Nice)	Roazhon Park
Capacity: 57,900[25]	Capacity: 45,600[26]	Capacity: 35,100[27]	Capacity: 28,600[28]
Le Havre	Lyon Grenoble Le Havre Montpellier Nice Paris Reims Rennes Valenciennes class=notpageimage| Location of the host cities of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Stade Océane
Capacity: 24,000[29]
Valenciennes	Reims	Montpellier	Grenoble
Stade du Hainaut	Stade Auguste-Delaune	Stade de la Mosson	Stade des Alpes
Capacity: 22,600[30]	Capacity: 20,500[31]	Capacity: 19,300[32]	Capacity: 18,000[33]

On 3 December 2018, FIFA announced the list of 27 referees and 48 assistant referees for the tournament.^[34][35][36] On 4 June 2019, FIFA announced that Canadian referee Carol Anne Chenard and Chinese assistant referee Cui Yongmei had pulled out for "health reasons."^[37]

On 15 March 2019, the FIFA Council approved the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) system for the first time in a FIFA Women's World Cup tournament. The technology was previously deployed at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.^[38] The fifteen male VAR officials were announced by FIFA on 2 May 2019.^[39][40]

French referee Stéphanie Frappart was in charge for the final between the United States and the Netherlands.^[41]

The draw for the final tournament was held on 8 December 2018, 18:00 CET (UTC+1), at the La Seine Musicale on the island of Île Seguin, Boulogne-Billancourt.^[42] The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams.^[43]

The 24 teams were allocated to four pots based on the FIFA Women's World Rankings released on 7 December 2018, with hosts France automatically placed in Pot 1 and position A1 in the draw.^[44] Teams from Pot 1 were drawn first and assigned to Position 1. This was followed by Pot 2, Pot 3, and finally Pot 4, with each of these teams also drawn to one of the positions 2–4 within their group. No group could contain more than one team from each confederation apart from UEFA, which have nine teams, where three groups had to contain two UEFA teams.^[45][46]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
France (3) (hosts)  United States (1)  Germany (2)  England (4)  Canada (5)  Australia (6)	Netherlands (7)  Japan (8)  Sweden (9)  Brazil (10)  Spain (12)  Norway (13)	South Korea (14)  China (15)  Italy (16)  New Zealand (19)  Scotland (20)  Thailand (29)	Argentina (36)  Chile (38)  Nigeria (39)  Cameroon (46)  South Africa (48)  Jamaica (53)

Each team had to provide to FIFA a preliminary squad of between 23 and 50 players by 26 April 2019, which was not to be published. From the preliminary squad, each team had to name a final squad of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by 24 May 2019. Players in the final squad could be replaced by a player from the preliminary squad due to serious injury or illness up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.^[47]

The match schedule for the tournament was released on 8 February 2018.^[48] Following the final draw, seven group stage kick-off times were adjusted by FIFA.^[49]

The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.^[47]

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).^[49]

Tie-breaking criteria for group play

The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:[47] Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat); Goal difference in all group matches; Number of goals scored in all group matches; Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question; Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question; Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question; Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match): Yellow card: −1 point; Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points; Direct red card: −4 points; Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points; Drawing of lots.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France (H)	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Norway	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
3	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
4	South Korea	3	0	0	3	1	8	−7	0

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany	3	3	0	0	6	0	+6	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Spain	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4
3	China	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
4	South Africa	3	0	0	3	1	8	−7	0

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	3	2	0	1	7	2	+5	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Australia	3	2	0	1	8	5	+3	6
3	Brazil	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
4	Jamaica	3	0	0	3	1	12	−11	0

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	3	0	0	5	1	+4	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Japan	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4
3	Argentina	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
4	Scotland	3	0	1	2	5	7	−2	1

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	3	3	0	0	6	2	+4	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Canada	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6
3	Cameroon	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
4	New Zealand	3	0	0	3	1	5	−4	0

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Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	3	3	0	0	18	0	+18	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Sweden	3	2	0	1	7	3	+4	6
3	Chile	3	1	0	2	2	5	−3	3
4	Thailand	3	0	0	3	1	20	−19	0

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The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advanced to the knockout stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up.

Pos	Grp	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	C	Brazil	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	B	China	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
3	E	Cameroon	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
4	A	Nigeria	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
5	F	Chile	3	1	0	2	2	5	−3	3
6	D	Argentina	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each), where each team was allowed to make a fourth substitution. If the score was still level after extra time, the winners were determined by a penalty shoot-out.^[47]

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

22 June – Nice

Norway (p)

1 (4)

27 June – Le Havre

Australia

1 (1)

Norway

0

23 June – Valenciennes

England

3

England

3

2 July – Décines-Charpieu

Cameroon

0

England

1

23 June – Le Havre

United States

2

France (a.e.t.)

2

28 June – Paris

Brazil

1

France

1

24 June – Reims

United States

2

Spain

1

7 July – Décines-Charpieu

United States

2

United States

2

25 June – Montpellier

Netherlands

0

Italy

2

29 June – Valenciennes

China

0

Italy

0

25 June – Rennes

Netherlands

2

Netherlands

2

3 July – Décines-Charpieu

Japan

1

Netherlands (a.e.t.)

1

22 June – Grenoble

Sweden

0

Third place play-off

Germany

3

29 June – Rennes

6 July – Nice

Nigeria

0

Germany

1

England

1

24 June – Paris

Sweden

2

Sweden

2

Sweden

1

Canada

0

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The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.^[102][103] The Golden Ball (best overall player), Golden Boot (top scorer) and Golden Glove (best goalkeeper) awards were sponsored by Adidas, while the Goal of the Tournament was sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company.^[104] FIFA.com shortlisted ten goals for users to vote on as the tournaments' best,^[105] with the poll closing on 17 July 2019.^[106]

Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
Megan Rapinoe	Lucy Bronze	Rose Lavelle
Golden Boot	Silver Boot	Bronze Boot
Megan Rapinoe	Alex Morgan	Ellen White
6 goals, 3 assists 428 minutes played	6 goals, 3 assists 490 minutes played	6 goals, 0 assists 514 minutes played
Golden Glove
Sari van Veenendaal
FIFA Young Player Award
Giulia Gwinn
Goal of the Tournament
Cristiane
38' for 2–0 in Group C vs Australia (matchday 2; 13 June)
FIFA Fair Play Award
France

The FIFA Technical Study Group announced a list of ten key players of the tournament who "dared to shine".^[107]

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Sari van Veenendaal	Lucy Bronze Crystal Dunn	Jill Scott Julie Ertz Rose Lavelle	Ellen White Vivianne Miedema