The England women's national football team represents England in international women's association football. Since 1993 the team has been governed by the Football Association (FA), having been previously controlled by the Women's Football Association (WFA) from 1972 until 1993. England played its first international match in November 1972 against Scotland. Although most national football teams represent a sovereign state, England is one of the United Kingdom's Home Nations, meaning that it is permitted by FIFA statutes to maintain its own national side that competes in all major tournaments, with the exception of the Women's Olympic Football Tournament.
England has qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup three times, reaching the quarter final stage on each occasion in 1995, 2007 and 2011. They reached the final of the UEFA Women's Championship in 1984 and 2009. In May 2009 central contracts were implemented, to help players focus on full-time training and playing, without having to fit it around full-time employment. Initially 17 players signed contracts.
Hope Powell became the team's first full-time head coach in July 1998, succeeding Ted Copeland. As of June 2012, England is ranked No. 9 in the FIFA Women's World Rankings.
Famous quotes containing the words football team, england, women, national, football and/or team:
“...I’m not money hungry.... People who are rich want to be richer, but what’s the difference? You can’t take it with you. The toys get different, that’s all. The rich guys buy a football team, the poor guys buy a football. It’s all relative.”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“I perceive that we inhabitants of New England live this mean life that we do because our vision does not penetrate the surface of things. We think that that is which appears to be.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As unmarried business women we must constantly use our opportunities in business in such a way that we are prepared for the marriage which may be ours tomorrow.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“The cinema is going to form the mind of England. The national conscience, the national ideals and tests of conduct, will be those of the film.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)
“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)