Welcome to football country! With this slogan, Germany successfully won the right to host the FIFA World Cup™ in the summer of 2006, going on to reveal itself as a passionate footballing country in every sense. The fantastic atmosphere was characterised by fundamental values of our sport such as fairness, friendliness, respect and tolerance, and was generated by the boundless passion of millions of fans at home and abroad. Countless girls and women played an integral part in creating this joyful euphoria.

Specifically in Germany, women and girls have been largely responsible for the dramatic increase in German Football Association (DFB) membership in recent years. Furthermore, the tremendous international success of the women's team has made a major contribution to the nation's favourite sport. Germany is not just a football country, but specifically a country of women's and girls' football. "The future of football is feminine," according to FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a vision which has already become reality here to a very large extent.

Following the fantastic men's FIFA World Cup in 2006, we would even now extend a warm welcome to Germany to fans from every continent, for two hopefully no less impressive and thrilling global festivals of women's football in 2010 and 2011.

Following FIFA's decision in 2007 to stage the FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany, a further resolution in March 2008 called for future FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup finals to be staged by the host nation for the following year's FIFA Women's World Cup. That meant Germany would be playing host to a double dose of global football action.

Since the beginning of 2008, the Organising Committee has been busy with initial preparations for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup 2010 and the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011. The LOC team is headed by its President, Steffi Jones: "I personally consider it a great honour that the DFB Executive Committee under its President Dr Theo Zwanziger appointed me President of the Local Organising Committee. I do not regard myself merely as a figurehead, but as an active member of the LOC team. I have always seen myself as a team player - as a member of the national team and at club level in Frankfurt, and during the two years I spent as a with Washington Freedom in the USA professional league - and will continue to do so."

For the LOC, the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is partly an organisational dry run for the FIFA Women's World Cup the following year. Nevertheless, the U-20 tournament will be a gala event in its own right, enhancing the standing of women's and girls' football both nationally and internationally on a permanent basis. The tournament is also intended to strengthen and accelerate the game's power as a force for integration

Against this background, we wish everyone the warmest of welcomes to our festival of women's football in Germany. Celebrate with us, discover the passion and excitement of the women's game, and let yourself be bewitched and immersed in a very special sense of togetherness brought about by the beautiful side of the game!