The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in October 2007. Japan won the final against the United States on a penalty shoot-out following a 2–2 draw after extra time and became the first Asian team to win a senior FIFA World Cup.
The matches were played in nine stadiums in nine host cities around the country, with the final played at the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt. Sixteen teams were selected for participation via a worldwide qualification tournament that began in 2009. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four teams for points, with the top two teams in each group proceeding. These eight teams advanced to the knockout stage, where two rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.
The hosts and defending champions Germany were eliminated by Japan in the quarter-finals with a 1-0 result in extra time.
Host selection
Six nations, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Peru and Switzerland, initially declared their interest in hosting the 2011 Women's World Cup. The German Football Association announced its hopes to host the tournament on 26 January 2006, following a pledge from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to fully support a potential bid.Rede von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel . Deutschland.de. 9 December 2005. Retrieved 29 April 2008. All six nations officially announced their interest by a 1 March 2007 deadline and acknowledged their intention of bidding by 3 May 2007 to FIFA.
The final bidding dossiers had to be handed over before 1 August 2007. Switzerland withdrew on 29 May 2007, stating that Europe is heavily focused on France and Germany, and a third European bid appeared futile. On 27 August 2007, France also withdrew, reportedly in exchange for Germany's support for their bid to host the men's UEFA Euro 2016.Juchem, Markus. WM 2011: Frankreichs Rückzug offenbar beschlossene Sache . Womensoccer.de. 23 August 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2008. Later Australia (12 October 2007) and Peru (17 October 2007) voluntarily dropped out of the race as well, leaving only Canada and Germany as the remaining candidates. On 30 October 2007, the FIFA Executive Committee voted to assign the tournament to Germany.Germany to stage 2011 showpiece . FIFA.com. 30 October 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2008. Canada was eventually awarded the 2015 Women's World Cup four years later.Canada gets 2015 Women's World Cup of soccer. CBCSports.ca. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
Upon the selection, Germany became the third country to host both men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the men's twice in 1974 and 2006.
Venues After the German Football Association (DFB) expressed its intention to bid for the Women's World Cup, 23 German cities applied to host World Cup games. Twelve cities were chosen for the official bidding dossier handed over to FIFA in August 2007.DFB benennt zwölf Städte und Stadien für Frauen-WM 2011. DFB.de. 11 May 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2008. On 30 September 2008, the DFB executive committee decided to use nine stadiums for the tournament; the original candidates Essen, Magdeburg and Bielefeld were not chosen as World Cup venues.Nine Host Cities announced. FIFA.com. 30 September 2008. Retrieved 1 October 2008.
The official opening game was held between Germany and Canada at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the venue of the 2006 men's World Cup final; it was the only match played in Berlin. However, it was not the first match of the tournament—it was preceded by a match at Rhein-Neckar-Arena in Sinsheim pitting France and Nigeria. The final of the tournament took place at the Commerzbank-Arena in Frankfurt, the venue of the 2005 men's Confederations Cup final. Borussia-Park in Mönchengladbach and Frankfurt's Commerzbank-Arena hosted the semi-finals. The third place play-off was held at Rhein-Neckar-Arena.
Since 2007, five of the stadiums were either newly built (Augsburg, Dresden and Sinsheim) or remodelled (Bochum and Leverkusen). Six stadiums would be home grounds for German First Bundesliga clubs in the upcoming 2011–12 season, while the other three would be home to Second Bundesliga clubs in the same season. Compared to the 2006 men's World Cup, several smaller venues were chosen; six stadiums have a capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 seats. All cities would stage a total of four matches, with the exceptions of Berlin and Mönchengladbach; the latter would host three games. The total capacity of the nine venues is roughly 330,000. Overall, approximately one million tickets would be available.Frauen-WM voraussichtlich vom 26. Juni bis 17. Juli . DFB.de. 19 April 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2008.
Several of the stadiums were officially referred to simply as "FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium" because FIFA prohibited sponsorship of stadiums unless the stadium sponsors were also official tournament sponsors. With no standing-room terraces allowed, all stadiums had a lower total capacity compared to German Bundesliga games. Capacity data is given according to FIFA:FIFA. Stadiums. FIFA.com. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
Berlin Frankfurt Bochum Mönchengladbach Sinsheim Olympic Stadium Commerzbank-Arena(FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium Frankfurt/Main) Ruhrstadion(FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium Bochum) Borussia-Park Rhein-Neckar-Arena Capacity: 73,680 Capacity: 48,837 Capacity: 20,556 Capacity: 45,860 Capacity: 30,150 Leverkusen Wolfsburg BayArena(FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium Leverkusen) Volkswagen-Arena(Arena im Allerpark) Capacity: 29,708 Capacity: 26,062 Dresden Augsburg Glücksgas Stadium(Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion) Impuls Arena(FIFA Women's World Cup Stadium Augsburg) Capacity: 25,582 Capacity: 24,661
Teams and qualification
Number of participating teams FIFA had considered the prospect of increasing the number of teams from 16 to 24, to reflect the growing global popularity of women's football and the Women's World Cup. However, on 14 March 2008, the FIFA Executive Committee decided to keep the number of participants at 16, concerned that more teams would dilute the quality of play.Associated Press. FIFA keeps 16 teams for 2011 Women's World Cup. ESPN.com. 13 March 2008. Retrieved 30 July 2008. The idea of having 20 teams taking part, which had been discussed briefly, was ruled impossible to implement in terms of fixture planning and logistics.Sixteen teams at Germany 2011. FIFA.com. 16 March 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2008. During the 2007 Women's World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter had campaigned for the idea to increase the number of teams, although this proposal was not unquestioned. In particular the 11–0 victory of Germany over Argentina in the opening game of the 2007 tournament had caused a debate over whether there were 24 national teams on a comparable level.AFP. FIFA chief dismayed at 11–0 scoreline in women's World Cup opener. Google News. 11 September 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
Confederation allocation In October 2008, the FIFA Executive Committee announced a change to the allocation of the qualifying berths for its continental confederations. Asia was granted 3 automatic berths instead of 2.5 for the finals (although in 2007 the host nation was an additional qualifier from Asia). Europe's allocation was reduced from 5 to 4.5 (although it effectively increased to 5.5 because of the automatic qualification of the host nation). The North/Central American and Caribbean confederation (CONCACAF) retained their 2.5 qualifiers, Africa and South America 2 each, and Oceania 1. The 16th qualifying spot was determined through a play-off between the third-placed team in CONCACAF and the winner of repechage play-offs in Europe.
FIFA also ruled that each confederation has to ensure that at least one third of its member associations enter their women's national teams for World Cup qualification, otherwise FIFA would re-examine the current slot allocation. In Africa and the Middle East a considerable percentage of teams had withdrawn from World Cup qualification in the past.
For European teams, the 2011 Women's World Cup was also used as a qualification tournament for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Besides Team Great Britain, Europe had two additional qualifiers for the Summer Olympics. With Germany losing their quarter-final, France, which had already reached the semi-finals, secured qualification to the Olympics. Sweden followed as UEFA's second team with its win against Australia.
Qualified teams
Qualification for the tournament took place between April 2009 and November 2010. As the host nation, Germany were granted automatic qualification, while the remaining national teams qualified through their continental confederations. Most confederations used their continental championship tournaments – the AFC Women's Asian Cup, CAF Women's Championship, OFC Women's Championship, Sudamericano Femenino and CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup – to determine qualification. The exception to this was UEFA, which used its own qualifying tournament.Qualifiers. FIFA.com. Retrieved 7 December 2009. One qualification spot was determined by a play-off between a UEFA and CONCACAF team.
The qualified teams, listed by region, with numbers in parentheses indicating final positions in the FIFA Women's World Ranking before the tournament were:
AFC (3) (11) (4) (8) CAF (2) (61) (debut) (27) CONCACAF (3) (6) (22) † (1)
CONMEBOL (2) (3) (31) (debut) OFC (1) (24) UEFA (5) (10) (7) (2) (hosts) (9) (5)
† – qualified via a play-off against Italy
Colombia and Equatorial Guinea made their debuts in the FIFA Women's World Cup. Brazil, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden and the United States maintained their streak of qualifying for all six tournaments so far, while China PR failed to qualify for the first time ever. This is Mexico's first appearance since 1999 and France's first appearance since 2003. As of 2027, this is the last time that Equatorial Guinea qualified for the tournament while tournament stalwarts North Korea—who were banned from the 2015 tournament and was inactive from 2019 to 2023 had their last appearance until 2027, as well as the last time the Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, and China (only time) failed to qualify.
Organization
Local organising committee
The tournament is supervised by the "Women's World Cup 2011 Organising Committee Germany".Organisation Chart. FIFA.com. 21 February 2008. Retrieved 29 April 2008. President of the Organising Committee (OC) is former German international Steffi Jones; she started her work on 1 January 2008. German president Christian Wulff was named the patron of the tournament.Bundespräsident Wulff übernimmt Schirmherrschaft. DFB.de. 30 August 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
The Organising Committee is chaired by Jones and supervised by the board of the German Football Federation (DFB). On 25 January 2009, Jones opened the committee offices and named her OC team. It is led by managing director Uli Wolter, who headed the Leipzig branch during the 2006 men's World Cup. Aside from Wolter, four department heads were named. Heike Ulrich is responsible for the tournament organisation, former German international Doris Fitschen heads the marketing department, Winfried Naß leads the department "Cities and Stadiums", and Jens Grittner, who served as the press officer for the 2006 Organising Committee, heads the communications department.FIFA Frauen-WM 2011 – Organisationskomitee. DFB.de. Retrieved 14 June 2011.