FIFA Women's World Cup Germany 2011

by Worawi Makudi
Chairman of the Committee for Women's Football and the FIFA Women's World Cup

We are delighted to acknowledge the enormous progress made by women's football in recent years. The fact that there are now more than 30 million female players around the world has finally buried the outdated notion that football is primarily a man's game.

The FIFA Women's World Cup is a major factor in boosting the popularity of women's football. The most prestigious tournament in the women's game has now been held five times, starting with the inaugural 1991 tournament in China, followed by Sweden, the USA (twice) and then again in China, which staged the most recent event in 2007. The FIFA Executive Committee has decided to award the FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 to Germany. After winning the two most recent FIFA Women's World Cups, Germany rate as one of the leading teams on the planet, and the nation has experienced a veritable boom in women's football. In April 2008, the German Football Association (DFB) announced that the number of women and girl players registered to the country's clubs had passed the one million mark. The country also boasts superb stadiums and state-of-the-art infrastructure.

FIFA is committed to the continuing development of women's football. A co-ordinated international women's football calendar was introduced in 2006. With the FIFA Women's World Cup, Women's Olympic Football Tournament, the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the latter being contested for the first time in 2008, all FIFA member associations are now involved in several continental qualifying tournaments. As a result, the technical quality and competitiveness of the women's game is higher than ever before. An example of the passion and commitment for women's football was the 90,000 crowd that packed the stadium in Los Angeles for the Final of the FIFA Women's World Cup in 1999. The crowds at the stadiums in China and watching on TV around the world were equally enthusiastic. For some time now, FIFA's women's football tournaments have had genuine spectator appeal.

Naturally, we regard the steadily increasing number of female players as most encouraging, but we must also continue to promote and further develop the women's game. One of our most important but perhaps less well known objectives is to launch women's football programmes in countries where the sport effectively does not yet exist. At the same time, FIFA supports officials and coaches in associations which already operate women's football programmes. In these countries, we should set realistic interim goals aimed at establishing permanent support structures.

There is a lot of which we can be proud, but we also have much work still to do. FIFA and the entire family of football has a duty to promote social equality. Every woman in the world should have the opportunity to play football. Our wonderful game is there for everyone, both male and female.