Unlimited Progress

U.S.A.
The first occasion on which an Olympic football tournament for women is being held is a special occasion indeed. The following assessments therefore do not relate exclusively to the performance of the individual teams, but also seek to illustrate the developments and tendencies within the various National Associations and Confederations. As the reader will discover, the interests and efforts of those responsible for football differ from country to country. Whereas women's football is fully accepted in some regions (Northern Europe, the USA, China), in other places it is greeted with scepticism and bafflement.

The future of women's football, however, is simply irresistible. The best example of this is Brazil which, after a disappointing performance in the 1995 World Cup in Sweden, enthusiastically set about building up a new national team and saw its efforts crowned with a richly deserved fourth place in the 1996 Olympic Football Tournament. And in other countries and confederations too, the level of acceptance of and interest in women's football is rising steadily. This is demonstrated by the relative strengths of the individual confederations; these have changed markedly since the first World Championships were held in 1991. At that time the European and US teams were predominant and were often able to score easy victories over their opponents. In 1995 China forced its way to the forefront of the group of top teams, and in 1996 Brazil declared its ambitions with regard to women's football, a field of endeavour in which it had previously shown little interest.

This is of course an encouraging development which we hope will continue and be confirmed in the course of the next Women's World Cup in 1999 where 16 teams will take part.