The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at eight venues across the country. The tournament was the most successful FIFA Women's World Cup in terms of attendance, television ratings, and public interest.
The 1999 edition was the first to field sixteen teams, an increase from the twelve in 1995, and featured an all-female roster of referees and match officials. It was played primarily in large American football venues due to expected demand following the successful 1996 Olympics women's tournament. The average attendance was 37,319 spectators per match and the total attendance was 1.194 million, a record that stood until 2015. The tournament earned a profit of $4 million on its $30 million operating budget.
The final, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, was attended by 90,185 people, setting an international record for spectators at a women's sporting event. The United States won the tournament by defeating China in a penalty shootout after a scoreless draw. The 5–4 shootout ended with Brandi Chastain scoring the winning penalty with her team's fifth kick, following an earlier miss by China's Liu Ying. Chinese forward Sun Wen and Brazilian midfielder Sissi were the joint top goalscorers of the tournament, with seven goals each.
The tournament was considered a "watershed moment" for women's soccer in the U.S. that increased interest and participation in women's soccer. A new professional league, the Women's United Soccer Association, was established following the tournament, and played three seasons before folding because of financial difficulties. The United States also hosted the next World Cup in 2003, which was played in smaller venues and ended with the host team finishing in third place.
Background The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the international women's championship created by FIFA following several precursor tournaments that were organized to test its feasibility. International women's soccer had gained popularity in the 1970s, following the easing of gender sanctions by national associations, and competitions were organized between national teams, including the Mundialito and Women's World Invitational Tournament. A FIFA-organized women's tournament was hosted by China in 1988 and was followed by the announcement of the first FIFA Women's World Cup, to be hosted by China in 1991. The tournament, which had several modified rules and was officially known as the 1st FIFA World Championship for Women's Football for the M&M's Cup until retroactively given the World Cup moniker, was considered a success by FIFA and was followed up by the second World Cup in Sweden four years later with greater media attention but played in front of smaller crowds averaging under 4,500.
Host selection The United States Soccer Federation announced their intention to bid for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup in February 1995, shortly after hosting the successful 1994 men's World Cup. Australia and Chile both announced their intention to bid but withdrew from the process in December 1995. This left the United States as the sole applicant by the March 1996 deadline for bids. The FIFA Executive Committee officially awarded hosting rights to the United States on May 31, 1996, the same day that the 2002 men's World Cup was jointly awarded to Japan and South Korea.
Venues With the exception of the semifinals, the tournament's 32 matches were organized into 15 doubleheaders, consisting of two matches played back-to-back in the same stadium. The semifinals were played in separate venues, but organized as doubleheaders hosted by the San Jose Clash and New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. Eight venues were used for the tournament: three on the East Coast, four on the West Coast, and one in Chicago. Most of the stadiums were American football venues with higher capacities than many of the stadiums used in the first two tournaments. At FIFA's request, the tournament's organizers had originally planned to use five smaller college football venues on the East Coast located in a single time zone. The final match would be staged at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C. Following the success of the inaugural women's soccer tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics, which had high attendances and culminated in 76,489 watching the gold medal match, the organizing committee chose to use larger stadiums instead and received 15 bids in 1997.
The eight venues and host cities were announced on November 19, 1997, including five large American football venues that were used in the 1994 men's World Cup. The tournament final was awarded to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, which reprised its role from the 1984 Summer Olympics gold medal match and the 1994 men's final. The opening match would be played at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York City. The tournament's organizing committee estimated that the 1999 World Cup would average an attendance of 25,000 per match, with U.S. matches and later knockout ties at near sellouts in the larger venues. Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in Landover, Maryland, serving the Washington, D.C. market, had a limited capacity of 41,000 seats because of ongoing construction during the group stage. It was later raised to 55,000 for the quarterfinals.
Two smaller venues, Civic Stadium in Portland, Oregon, and Spartan Stadium in San Jose, California, were chosen to each host several group stage matches and one quarterfinal doubleheader. For the tournament, Civic Stadium was outfitted with a temporary grass field that was laid over its artificial turf surface, which debuted during a warm-up friendly on June 6. Other venues underwent small modifications to host the tournament's matches, including converting American football locker rooms to accommodate more teams and changing the dimensions of the playing field.
Ticket pre-sales at discounted prices began in October 1997 and over 300,000 were sold by April 1999. By early June, ticket sales had reached 500,000—setting a new record for a women's sporting event by surpassing the NCAA women's basketball tournament. The opening weekend's eight matches were organized into four doubleheaders that attracted a total of 134,236 spectators, surpassing the total attendance for the 1995 World Cup; the United States–Denmark match drew a crowd of 78,972 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, setting a new U.S. record for attendance at a women's sporting event. That figure was later surpassed by the final, played between the United States and China at the Rose Bowl in front of a crowd of 90,185 spectators—a world record for women's sports.
Los Angeles San Francisco Washington, D.C. New York/New Jersey Rose Bowl Stanford Stadium Jack Kent Cooke Stadium Giants Stadium Capacity: 95,542 Capacity: 85,429 Capacity: 80,116 Capacity: 77,716 Venues of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup in the United States Chicago Boston Portland San Jose Soldier Field Foxboro Stadium Civic Stadium Spartan Stadium Capacity: 65,080 Capacity: 58,868 Capacity: 27,396 Capacity: 26,000
Participating teams and officials
Qualification
The 1999 Women's World Cup had sixteen participating teams, an increase from the twelve in 1995 and the largest field in the tournament's history. Ghana, Mexico, North Korea, and Russia all made their Women's World Cup debuts at the 1999 tournament, with Mexico being the first Spanish-speaking country to qualify while Russia being the first Slavic country to qualify. Of the remaining twelve teams, three were returning for their second tournament; nine had participated in all three editions since 1991. The tournament's seven best quarter-finalists also qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympics alongside hosts Australia.
The United States was granted automatic qualification as the host. The remaining participants were determined through a series of six tournaments run by the continental confederations of world soccer from 1997 to 1998; these comprised 63 countries playing in 141 matches. FIFA allocated six berths to Europe; three to Asia; two to Africa; and one each to North America (excluding the hosts), Oceania, and South America. Another berth (for Mexico) was determined by a play-off series between the second-place finishers in the North and South American tournaments.
Africa (CAF)
Asia (AFC)
South America (CONMEBOL)
Oceania (OFC) Europe (UEFA)
North America, Central America & Caribbean (CONCACAF)
(via play-off) (host nation – automatically qualified)
Draw The tournament's final draw took place on February 14, 1999, on a temporary outdoor stage at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, California. It was televised live by ESPN during the halftime of an exhibition match between the United States women's team and the FIFA Women's World Stars at the stadium. The United States lost the match 2–1, their first home defeat in more than 40 matches.
The draw was conducted using four pots of four teams each. The four highest-ranked teams, China, Germany, Norway, and the United States, were seeded into Pot A. The remaining pots were organized based on geographic location, with four European teams in Pot B, South America, Asia, and Oceania represented in Pot C, and North America and Africa in Pot D. The United States was placed in slot A1, separated from Canada and Mexico; similarly, China was separated from Japan and North Korea in the draw.
As a result of the restrictions in seeding and pot placement, two of the World Cup groups each contained two European teams. Group B was dubbed the "group of death" because it contained non-seeded Brazil, an Olympic semi-finalist, alongside Germany, Italy, and Mexico. The teams drawn in Groups C and D were switched to place China's opening match at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, with hopes of attracting the San Francisco Bay Area's Chinese-American community.
Pot A Pot B Pot C Pot D (A1)
Squads
Each team's squad for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup consisted of 20 players, the same as the 1995 tournament. The sixteen participating national associations were required to confirm their final rosters no later than June 9, 1999. Three days after the deadline, the full rosters were published by FIFA on their website. Several teams, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico, drew much of their roster from U.S. college teams. The oldest player at the tournament was Norwegian captain Linda Medalen, who turned 34 before the opening matchday, while the youngest was 16-year-old Ifeanyi Chiejine of Nigeria.
Match officials The 1999 tournament was the first World Cup to feature a pool of 31 referees composed entirely of women—the result of a directive from FIFA president Sepp Blatter approved the year before. They worked in groups during matching and training and were divided between two base facilities in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. to reduce travel. Before the tournament, several coaches raised concerns over the quality of the referee pool, particularly those chosen for geographic diversity. By the end of the group stage, several coaches had complained of inconsistent fouls and offside calls. This was blamed in part on the referees being inexperienced with working in front of large crowds. In a post-tournament report, FIFA stated that the trial of all-female referees had been successful and that further development would produce better results in future tournaments.
FIFA published the final list of referees on April 13, 1999. From this list, only Ghanaian assistant referee Juliana Akuteye did not officiate at the tournament. American referee Kari Seitz was selected in June as a replacement for another official who had been denied a travel visa to the United States.