The world's best women
FIFA is to unveil the first women's football world ranking. Eric Asomougha explains what the move means
Ten years after the launch of the men's ranking, FIFA, world football's governing body, will tomorrow unveil its first women's world seedings.
The rankings are in line with a strategy to give more impetus to the women's game. FIFA is hoping to give the popularity of the sport -- which is seen as having a prosperous future -- a well-deserved boost.
Women's football will now have an objective yardstick for measuring the sporting performance of a steadily expanding number of national teams around the world.
According to the Big Count survey published by FIFA two years ago, some 22 million women play football regularly in over 130 countries, a figure that must have been surpassed by today's count.
According to FIFA, a stumbling block that had long prevented the success of such a ranking from being calculated has been eliminated. It said it had gone to great lengths to improve the actual database so much so that reliable statistics can now be evaluated. Some 3,000 international matches dating back to 1970 have been taken into account. Approximately half of them have been friendlies.
The list of the top contenders for the historic number one spot may be short and unfamiliar to non-followers of the game but ultimately women have come a long way in spreading their brand of football gospel, adding grace and glamour to a game virtually dominated by men.
In the race are the US, the world champions, Norway's Olympic winners, European champions Germany, the Chinese powerhouse and the Swedish evergreen, as well as African representatives Nigeria.
About 100 teams, substantially more than at previous competitions, contested for the preliminary competition of the about to be relocated fourth FIFA Women's World Cup initially scheduled to have been held in China from 23 September to 11 October this year. The relocation was prompted by the spread of SARS in China.
Nevertheless, the first FIFA women's World Cup was held 1991 in China. The US defeated Norway in the final to become the first world champions.
In 1995, it was sweet revenge for Norway which defeated the US in the semi-finals before overpowering Germany in the final to win the second edition held in Sweden.
In a breathtaking final, which was decided by penalty shootout, the Americans defeated rival China to lift the cup for the second time in the third edition as host.
The US also won the first Olympic women's football event in 1996 by beating China. Four years later in Sydney 2000, Norway defeated the US for the gold.
