Academic literature on the topic 'FIFA Women's World Cup (2015 : Canada)'

In 2015, the England Women’s national football team finished third at the Women’s World Cup in Canada. Alongside the establishment of the Women’s Super League in 2011, the success of the women’s team posed a striking contrast to the recent failures of the England men’s team and in doing so presented a timely opportunity to examine the negotiation of hegemonic discourses on gender, sport and football. Drawing upon an ‘established-outsider’ approach, this article examines how, in newspaper coverage of the England women’s team, gendered constructions revealed processes of alteration, assimilation and resistance. Rather than suggesting that ‘established’ discourses assume a normative connection between masculinity and football, the findings reveal how gendered ‘boundaries’ were both challenged and protected in newspaper coverage. Despite their success, the discursive positioning of the women’s team as ‘outsiders’, served to (re)establish men’s football as superior, culturally salient and ‘better’ than the women’s team/game. Accordingly, we contend that attempts to build and, in many instances, rediscover the history of women’s football can be used to challenge established cultural representations that draw exclusively from the history of the men’s game. In such instances, the 2015 Women’s World Cup provides a historical moment from which the women’s game can be relocated in a context of popular culture.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how a legacy of event hosting competencies from one event can contribute to advancing the overall hosting capacity of a nation for future events. More specifically, the project focuses on determining the event hosting capacity legacies from the Men’s Under-20 2007 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) event in Canada and how they contributed toward winning the rights for the Women’s FIFA World Cup 2015 event. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study design focusing on FIFA events held in Canada in 2007 and 2015 was used. Findings Four broad event hosting capacity legacies from the U-20 2007 event that potentially impacted Canada’s ability to secure the WWC 2015 were identified. These legacies included: exemplifying success, advancement of hosting concepts, staff and leadership experience and development and enhancement of sporting infrastructure. Research limitations/implications The findings formed the basis of a discussion on the increasing formalization of event organizing committees, the need to consider collective (i.e. multiple events) legacies in the development of hosting strategies as well as the importance of developing the trust of the local community to support future sport event bids and hosting. Originality/value The originality and value of this research paper lies in its use of empirical case study findings to illustrate the potential for hosting capacity legacies of sporting events as well as the level and type of event under investigation (i.e. large-scale, football/soccer).

Purpose This study aims to explore the legacy potential of the FIFA Women’s World Cup (FWWC) 2015, for the host communities across Canada. Design/methodology/approach The mixed-methods study included a link to an online anonymous survey being sent to all volunteers at the FWWC that explored their prior volunteering experience, motivations for volunteering, perceived skill development and future volunteering intentions. Documents were reviewed, and key stakeholders were interviewed. Findings The results support previous research that mega-sport event (MSE) volunteers are typically older females with prior volunteering experience. Those most likely to indicate they wanted to volunteer more are younger volunteers without prior volunteering experience. While legacy was discussed as a desired outcome, this was not operationalised through strategic human resource strategies such as being imbedded in the position descriptions for the volunteer managers. Research limitations/implications As this study was conducted in the real-world context of a sport event, the timing of the survey was determined by the organising committee. Practical implications Mega sport events typically draw upon existing host-city social and human capital. For future event organising committees planning for and delivering a volunteer legacy may require better strategic planning and leveraging relationships with existing host-city volunteer networks. In the context of a single sport, women’s MSE, multi-venue, multi-province event, greater connection was required to proactively connect younger women for volunteers to their geographic sport and event volunteering infrastructure. Originality/value This is the first research of volunteers for the largest women’s mega single-sport event. There are three theoretical contributions of the paper to: the socio-ecological lens, motivational theory of single event MSE and the contribution of social and human capital to understandings of legacy.

Since 1992, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has been ranking senior men’s national soccer teams based on a variety of criteria. In 2003, FIFA extended the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings into ranking senior women’s national soccer teams. The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings published just before the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA, 1998 FIFA World Cup France, 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan, 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2003 FIFA World Cup USA, 2007 FIFA World Cup China, 2011 FIFA World Cup Germany, 2015 FIFA World Cup Canada, and the 2019 FIFA World Cup France were considered. These rankings were compared to the final results of those FIFA World Cups based on two different methods of displaying the teams finish and were analyzed. Of the top 16 teams in each of the Men’s FIFA World Cups, 74.1% of those teams advanced to the Round of 16. Meanwhile, 83.9% of the top 12 teams in each of the Women’s FIFA World Cups advanced to the Round of 16 or Quarterfinals. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the Pre-Tournament rankings and final results was calculated using both ranking methods. The Women’s World Cups had higher Pearson correlation coefficients for both methods than the Men’s World Cups. In addition, the Women’s World Cups had higher t-values and z-scores than the Men’s World Cup when tested for independence and association between the Pre-Tournament rankings and final results using both ranking methods. These findings indicate that the Women’s World Cups were more predictable than Men’s World Cups based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings.

Video assistant referee (VAR) has been implemented in women's football, aiming to improve referees' decision-making, but its impact has not yet been analyzed. This study intended to explore how the VAR affects refereeing decisions at Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women's World Cup competitions. The sample includes all 52 matches played in the 2015 tournament before VAR was introduced and all 52 matches played in the 2019 competition where VAR was deployed. For each match, data on ten variables were collected: first half playing time, second half playing time, total playing time, penalties, offsides, fouls, goals, corner kicks, yellow cards, and red cards. The match variables were compared before and after VAR implementation using a Mann–Whitney U test, a Bayesian analysis, a generalized linear model, and a non-clinical magnitude-based inference. The results demonstrated that after VAR was introduced, playing time during the first half [p < 0.001, BF10 = 547.05, Cohen's d = 1.06, 90%CI (0.71, 1.40)], the second half [p < 0.001, BF10 = 57.09, Cohen's d = 0.91, 90%CI (0.57, 1.25)], and the entire match [p < 0.001, BF10 = 1,120.39, Cohen's d = 1.33, 90%CI (0.97, 1.69)] increased significantly with moderate to large effect sizes, while the number of penalties, offsides, and fouls did not vary significantly neither did the number of goals, corner kicks, yellow cards, and red cards. This study has practical implications for professionals in terms of a better understanding of VAR's impact on elite women's football.