Gooaal! Soccer fans, get your game on with this book about one of the biggest tournaments in women’s sports. The first international women's soccer match was in 1881, but the Women's World Cup didn't become official until 1991 -- 110 years later! Read about the courageous, soccer-loving women who worked hard to have a World Cup of their own in this addition to the Who HQ series. Young readers will learn about the history of women's soccer, star players, and iconic wins! From Team USA's record-breaking four championships to Japan's inspiring win in 2011, this book is full of heartwarming and exciting stories about incredible athletes across decades!

This book offers a critical examination of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, being held in Australia and New Zealand. Drawing on perspectives from sociology, history, political science and management, it sheds new light on the development of women’s soccer and on women’s sport more broadly. The book examines the politics of the build-up to the tournament, including the bidding process, as well as how the tournament has been represented in the media, the governance structures of the tournament itself, and policy proposals designed to leave an enduring legacy for women and girls in sport. The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is the first Women’s World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere and the first to be held with an expanded 32-team format. This book shows why the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup represents a unique opportunity to enhance our understanding of women’s football, gender-oriented sport development initiatives and strategies, national sport policy and programming, and the management of international sporting events. This book is fascinating reading for any student, researcher or practitioner with an interest in sport development, sport management, sport policy, sport sociology, event management, gender studies, political science, or the relationship between sport and wider society.

This book explores football culture, organisation and development in the five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway. These countries represent an important case study in sport culture, policy and management, being shaped by unique traditions in their civil society and in social welfare and public policy. The first part of the book explores the development path of football in each country, looking at how football arrived in Scandinavia and how it has been transformed from a voluntary civic activity into a professional sport while becoming closely attached to the global football system. The second part highlights key issues – including historical, contemporary and critical aspects – across three themes: professionalisation and changing practices; equality and gender; and supporters, audiences and culture. Written by a team of authors with a blend of experience as academics and practitioners in football, the book traces the contours of the distinctive Nordic model that occupies a prominent position in the global football system. Shining fascinating new light on the relationship between football and wider society, this is invaluable reading for students and researchers interested in football, sport management, sport policy, or the history, culture or sociology of sport and for anyone involved in the game.

This ambitious and fascinating history considers why, in the space of sixty years between 1850 and 1910, football grew from a marginal and unorganised activity to become the dominant winter entertainment for millions of people around the world. The book explores how the world’s football codes - soccer, rugby league, rugby union, American, Australian, Canadian and Gaelic - developed as part of the commercialised leisure industry in the nineteenth century. Football, however and wherever it was played, was a product of the second industrial revolution, the rise of the mass media, and the spirit of the age of the masses. Important reading for students of sports studies, history, sociology, development and management, this book is also a valuable resource for scholars and academics involved in the study of football in all its forms, as well as an engrossing read for anyone interested in the early history of football.

The Official History of the FIFA World Cup Book is an authoritative and comprehensive review of the 20 FIFA World Cups to have taken place since the inaugural tournament in 1930. Packed with stunning photography, exclusive interviews of the biggest stars of each edition, unique official documents and statistics, it is a must read for any football fan around the world. No other event in the sporting world can rival the glamour, impact, fervent following and universal appeal of the FIFA World Cup. This unique book tells the stories behind the scenes, as well as analyzing the most famous incidents. It features the biggest stars and many previously unknown ones too, all with a unique worldwide point of view.

A complete history of women’s football in Great Britain, from its Victorian games beginning in 1881 to 2022 and planning for the Euro Finals. In The History of Women’s Football, author Jean Williams demonstrates how women’s football began as a professional sport, and has only recently returned to these professional roots in the UK. This is because there was a fifty-year Football Association ‘ban’ on women playing on pitches affiliated to the governing body in England. The other British associations followed suit. Why was women’s football banned in 1921? Why did it take until 1969 for a Women’s Football Association to form? Why did it take until 1995 for England to qualify for a Women’s World Cup? Answers to these key questions are supplemented across the chapters by personal accounts of the players who defied the ban, at home and abroad, along with the personal costs, and rewards, of being footballing pioneers. Praise for The History of Women’s Football “This book was very informed, detailed and a very good read. As a football fan, I was staggered by how much I didn’t know and how if football had been better supported at the beginning of the century there is a good chance women’s football would be on a par with the men’s game now . . . this was a very interesting read and I would happily recommend this book to fellow football fans.” —UK Historian

BASIC ROLEPLAYING] THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY is a time when men turn their hands against each other and the seas and coasts are splattered with blood. The wars that ravaged Europe are over, but peace brings new problems. Thousands have been displaced or orphaned, their homes and lands ruined or claimed by others. Many thousands more see their livelihoods as soldiers and sailors disappear as Europe's armies and navies are reduced in size. National resources are free to invest in exploration, colonization, and trade. Mercantilism is on the rise and the great ports of Europe are flooded with wealth drawn from the Far East and the West Indies. Spain holds most of the New World in her grasp, extracting fabulous amounts of gold and silver. Plantations on Cuba, Hispaniola, Barbados and other islands turn a tidy profit. From approximately 1655 until the early 1730's the world sees the largest surge in acts of piracy in recorded history. It is this inspiring era that gives us Henry Morgan, Blackbeard, Kidd, the Isle of Tortuga, Port Royal, Anne Bonny, and Mary Reade. This is the era of Blood Tide

Estimated participation figures of almost 30 million worldwide make soccer the most prominent team sport amongst girls and women. However, making a living as a female player is only deemed possible in approximately 20 out of around 150 FIFA-listed women’s soccer countries. This has led to a situation where highly skilled sports women have to migrate from their homelands to find employment with a professional team. Women, Soccer and Transnational Migration represents a substantial contribution to our knowledge on the development of women’s soccer, to research into sports labor migration and sport and globalization more broadly. The book consists of three parts. Firstly, it provides an overview and an analysis of migration in women's soccer from its earliest forms until now. It then presents several case studies, delivered by scholars from around the world, illustrating how female players are increasingly being drawn to the USA, Northern Europe and Scandinavia due to their ability to support professional leagues. Finally, all the themes and patterns of these case studies are drawn together to be able to compare and contrast migration in women's soccer to sport migration and globalization more broadly. This study not only makes recommendations for future researchers, but may also serve as an important source of information for those in charge of policy. As such, it is essential reading for students, lecturers, researchers and practitioners involved in sports migration and women's sport.

The official FIFA ultimate trivia quiz collection for Soccer fans.