China PR 1991

All of the competitors at the 1988 FIFA International Women’s Football Tournament knew that they held the future of women’s football in their hands. Fail to impress and the cause could be put back years, decades perhaps; create a good impression and the revolution could begin with a World Cup at the heart of it.

As the crowd filed out of the Tianhe stadium in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou at the end of the Final between Norway and Sweden, they were probably still reflecting on an extraordinary miss by Sweden’s Anneli Gustafsson which would have levelled the match at 1-1.

But instead of being used as an excuse to put the brakes on the development of women’s football, Gustafsson’s incredible miss - she skied a rebound from the post over the crossbar in front of an empty goal - was just seen as another part of an exciting tournament which finally gave the green light for the creation of a World Cup for women.

On Saturday 9 September 1989, a small crowd of 759 gathered in the Varkauden Keskuskenttä in the small Finnish town of Varkaus to watch the first game in the history leading to the Women’s World Cup. A first half penalty by Sissel Grude settled the game in Norway’s favour as they took their first step on the road to China.

Five first round groups produced eight quarter-finalists with the four semi-finalists and the losing quarter-finalist with the best record qualifying for the World Cup. The Norwegians were the first to achieve that in November 1990 after knocking out Hungary, followed by Italy, who knocked out Sweden on away goals; Denmark beat the Netherlands while Germany comfortably saw off England. Sweden were the lucky quarter-final losers.

In July 1991, just four months before the World Cup started, the Germans, who since October 1990 had no longer been playing as West Germany, beat Norway 3-1 in the Final to ensure they went to China as European Champions.

Across much of the world, the media paid scant attention to women’s football before the early 1990s. There are few newspaper reports and photos are scarce. Many of the pioneers just haven’t received the recognition they deserve.

That is what make the decision of the organisers of the 1991 AFC Women’s Championship to take a photo of all of the teams so important. It means we have a lasting photographic legacy for all the players who took part in Asia’s first World Cup qualifying campaign. All that needs to be done now is to put names to the faces of a group of pioneering women from Asia who challenged cultural norms and helped establish the women’s game on the continent.

Of all the six continental confederations, Asia could actually boast the longest history of organised international competition thanks to the creation of the Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC) in 1968. It was an organisation that struggled for recognition, however, but against the odds it launched a championship in 1975 which was staged on a two-year cycle. Five had been played by the time the ALFC merged with the Asian Football Confederation in 1986 the year the official AFC Asian Women’s Championship was launched.

The 1991 tournament had nine entries and was played over two weeks in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka. As China had already qualified as World Cup hosts, the two qualifying places went to Japan, who lost 5-0 to the Chinese in the Final, and to Chinese Taipei, who beat North Korea on penalties in the play-off for third place.

The Australian and New Zealand women’s teams had been the first outside of Europe to play an official international match – in 1979 – although unofficial games between them had an even longer history.

And that intense rivalry was brought to the 1991 OFC Nations Cup, the fourth time the tournament had been staged since 1983. The two previous editions had been won by the nomadic Chinese Taipei, but they had now found a home back in the Asian Football Confederation.

The Marconi Stadium in Sydney was the venue for the tournament and the outcome was ultimately determined by who scored the most goals against novices Papua New Guinea. Wendy Sharpe’s goal for New Zealand beat Australia in the first encounter between the two, while future FIFA Executive Committee member Moya Dodd returned the favour for Australia in the return. A 16-0 win over PNG proved decisive for the Kiwis to earn their place in China.

Though not the first official game to involve an African country – an experimental side from the Côte d’Ivoire had taken part in the 1988 International Women’s Football Tournament – the opening match of the 1991 CAF African Women’s Championship between Nigeria and Ghana on Saturday, 16 February 1991 was the first to be played on African soil.

An astonishing crowd of 55,000 turned up at the National Stadium in Lagos to watch a match in which the home side comfortably beat Ghana 5-1. Played on a knockout basis, home and away, there was perhaps an element of hope over experience amongst most of the entries as Senegal, Zimbabwe and Congo withdrew in the first round, followed by Zambia in the semi-finals.

In the Final the Nigerians met Cameroon and were already proving themselves to be the dominant power on the continent with a commanding 6-0 aggregate victory. The second leg in Yaoundé’s Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo on 30 June was watched by an impressive 30,000, with Nigeria’s 2-0 win confirming them as the last team to take their place in China.

Not even an attempted coup against newly-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the build-up to the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, could dampen the ecstatic welcome given to the eight teams taking part. The Stade Sylvio Cator was filled to its capacity - and beyond - with a total of 340,000 fans attending the 11 games.

The USA were nervous going into the tournament. Mexico were seen as the most powerful team on the continent thanks to their pioneering role 20 years earlier in staging an unofficial world championship and reaching the Final before a world record crowd for women’s football that still stands today.

It was a young American team that was also unused to the conditions. Julie Foudy recalls revising for her exams by candlelight thanks to repeated power cuts… to say nothing of the ever-present cockroaches! What followed set the USA on the road to becoming the dominant global power in the women’s game. Mexico were beaten 12-0 and over the five games they played the USA scored 49 without reply. A hat trick by Michelle Akers-Stahl and goals from Kristine Lilly and captain April Heinrichs saw the USA beat Canada 5-0 in the Final to receive what must be one of the biggest trophies awarded in the history of world football!

Of the 49 goals scored by the US, Akers-Stahl had scored 11, Heinrichs eight and Carin Jennings five, an attacking trio quickly nicknamed the ‘Triple-Edged Sword.’ They would be just as potent in the finals in China.