2003 FIFA Women's World Cup

2003 edition of the FIFA Women's World CupTemplate:SHORTDESC:2003 edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup

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International football competitionTemplate:SHORTDESC:International football competition
The **2003 FIFA Women's World Cup** was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September 20 to October 12, 2003, at six venues in six cities across the country. The tournament was won by Germany, who became the first country to win both the men's and women's World Cup.

China was originally awarded the right to host the tournament, which would have taken place from September 23 to October 11 in four cities. A severe outbreak of SARS in early 2003 affected Guangdong in southern China and prompted FIFA to move the Women's World Cup to the United States, who had hosted the previous edition in 1999. China was instead granted hosting rights for the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and financial compensation while the United States Soccer Federation made new arrangements to host at smaller stadiums.

## Preparations

### Host selection and change

FIFA awarded hosting rights for the Women's World Cup to China on October 26, 2000, beating a bid by Australia. The tournament was originally planned to run from September 23 to October 11 at venues in Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Hangzhou. Several sporting events in China were canceled or postponed in early April due to the outbreak of SARS in southern China, including the official draw for the Women's World Cup, and FIFA launched a joint investigation with the World Health Organization into whether the outbreak would subside by the time of the tournament. The United States, Canada, and Australia were mentioned as potential replacement hosts at the time.

On May 3, 2003, FIFA announced that they would move the tournament to an alternate host country, which would be determined at a later date; the United States and Australia had expressed interest in hosting, while Brazil was floated as another potential host. FIFA also announced that they would instead award the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup and pay $1 million to the organizing committee to compensate for planning expenses. On May 26, 2003, the United States was announced as the tournament's new host, ahead of the other formal bid submitted by Sweden. The United States was judged to be a suitable emergency host because of their experience with organizing the 1999 tournament, despite potential conflicts in the fall sports schedule with American football and baseball. Women's soccer boosters in the United States also hoped that interest generated by the tournament would save the struggling professional league, the Women's United Soccer Association, from folding; the league ultimately folded a few days before the tournament began in September.

## Venues

The tournament's 32 matches were played at six venues and organized into 15 doubleheaders, with the exception of the third-place and final matches, which were played on separate days. The Los Angeles area repeated as host of the final, which was moved from the Rose Bowl to the Home Depot Center, a smaller stadium in Carson, California. The matches were scheduled in doubleheaders and moved from four venues on the East Coast to two on the West Coast as it progressed to later matchdays. The size and scope of the tournament were also reduced from the 1999 edition due to the limited time to organize and prepare for the event.

Mostly due to the rescheduling of the tournament on short notice, FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation were forced to creatively schedule matches. Nine doubleheaders were scheduled in group play (similar to the 1999 format). They also had to abandon the modern practice of scheduling the final matches of the group stage to kick off simultaneously. In Groups A and D, the final matches were scheduled as the two ends of a doubleheader. The final matches in Groups B and C were also scheduled as doubleheaders, but split between two cities, with a Group B match in each city followed by a Group C match. The four quarterfinals were also scheduled as two doubleheaders, and both semifinals were also a doubleheader.

The host stadiums were announced on June 13, 2003, including three large stadiums to open the tournament and three small, soccer-specific stadiums for later stages. Giants Stadium in the New York City area backed out of hosting after being unable to resolve scheduling issues with the New York Giants. For the tournament, Portland's newly renovated PGE Park (formerly Civic Stadium) received a new grass surface and temporary seating to expand capacity to 28,359; it had previously hosted several matches during the 1999 tournament. Gillette Stadium replaced the demolished Foxboro Stadium, while RFK Stadium was chosen in place of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in the Washington, D.C. area. The venues also employed new security measures that were required by the U.S. government following the September 11 attacks in 2001.

## References

1. ↑ Cockerill, Michael (October 26, 2000). "Women's World Cup failure hastens merger talks". *Sydney Morning Herald*. p. 8. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Hersh, Philip (April 11, 2003). "SARS threat may move World Cup". *Chicago Tribune*. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
3. ↑ Jones, Grahame L. (April 7, 2003). "SARS Threatens Staging of Women's World Cup". *Los Angeles Times*. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
4. ↑ Hersh, Philip (May 4, 2003). "SARS costs China Women's World Cup". *Chicago Tribune*. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 6, 2019.
5. ↑ "SARS: FIFA executive decides to relocate FIFA Women's World Cup 2003". FIFA.com. May 3, 2003. Archived from the original on July 28, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
6. ↑ "China paid $1.5m for losing women's world cup". *Sydney Morning Herald*. Agence France-Presse. September 20, 2003. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Longman, Jere (May 27, 2003). "U.S. Replaces China As Host of Soccer's Women's World Cup". *The New York Times*. p. D1. Archived from the original on September 8, 2018. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
8. ↑ Hersh, Philip (September 16, 2003). "Women's soccer league folds on eve of World Cup". *Chicago Tribune*. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Jones, Grahame L. (June 17, 2003). "World Cup Leans to the West". *Los Angeles Times*. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Longman, Jere (June 13, 2003). "World Cup To Skip New York". *The New York Times*. p. D1. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 15, 2018.
11. ↑ Longman, Jere (September 17, 2003). "SOCCER; The Group Dynamics of the Women's World Cup". *The New York Times*. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved July 31, 2012.
12. ↑ Template:Harvp
13. ↑ FIFA Technical Study Group (2003). FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003 Report and Statistics (PDF) (Report). Fédération Internationale de Football Association. pp. 90–101. OCLC 85347862. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 7, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.

## External links

* Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived March 4, 2007)
* FIFA Women's World Cup USA 2003, FIFA.com
* FIFA Technical Report

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