FIFA Women’s World Cup Under Way in France

The 2019 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) women’s football world cup started Friday with 24 countries participating in the games. The world cup will end on July 7. Host country France won the first match of the eighth edition of the world cup against South Korea.

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The first known women’s football games started during the 1890s, with a few clubs in the U.K. for women. In the 1920s there were around 150 women’s teams in England. These were mainly women working in factories after the men were enlisted to fight the first world war.

In 1921, women were banned from playing football by the U.K. Football Asociation as it was "quite unsuitable for females" according to the organization.

The ban was formally lifted in 1971 after the formation of the Women’s Football Association a few years earlier.

The first time World Cup was held a year before the ban was lifted. It was an unofficial world cup held in Itlay in 1970. Only seven teams played in the first world cup.

During the 1970s more countries started lifting the ban on women players and started forming national teams.

The world cup was first started in 1991 officially in China with 12 countries. Since then every four years its being held in various countries.

In the 2019 world cup, the 24 countries have been divided into six groups where the winner of each group will go to knockouts.

Chile, Scotland, Jamaica, and South Africa are making their world cup debut.

Since the 1991 official world cup, United States has won the cup three times followed by Germany who won it twice and then Japan and Norway winning it once each.