Fédération Internationale et Européenne de Football Féminin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fédération Internationale et Européenne de Football Féminin (FIEFF, Italian Federazione Internazionale e Europea di Calcio Femminile ) was a women's football association that existed between the beginning of 1970 and 1972. Although he was not recognized by FIFA , UEFA and many of their national member associations, he organized two Women's World Cups (1970 in Italy , 1971 in Mexico ), which are not considered official tournaments even in the 21st century.

Organization history

In connection with the resurgence of women's football in several European countries from the mid-1960s - initially banned or only tolerated by the official national football associations - a group of business people and lawyers from Turin , which had previously also been an autonomous Italian national association, decided the Federazione Italiana di Calcio Femminile , called (FICF) launched in 1969 and Italy a women's football championship had organized the establishment of an international association.

After the initiators had mainly approached European association and club representatives, the FIEFF founding congress took place in February 1970, attended by delegates from Switzerland, West Germany, England, Austria and Mexico. However, the elected presidium consisted exclusively of Italians, especially since the organization was based in Turin: the lawyer Dr. Lucci, his deputy the notary Zamparelli; The board was supplemented by FICF President Rambaudi, Talarico, a senior employee of the main sponsor Martini & Rossi and, as a specialist in sports medicine, the doctor Dr. Boero.

The FIEFF World Championships

In the first half of July 1970, FIEFF in Italy organized a competition known as the Women's World Cup (Coppa del mondo) with participating teams from the host country, England, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Mexico and the Federal Republic of Germany, for which SC 07 Bad Neuenahr competed and lost against the English with 1: 5 and against the later Danish world champions with 1: 6. These two games without Italian participation were attended by 5,000 paying spectators in Genoa and 4,000 in Bologna . Overall, this tournament was a financial success for FIEFF; therefore the association decided to hold it again for the following year. In preparation for this, FIEFF held a meeting in December 1970, at which representatives from nine countries - in addition to the participants in the founding congress also from France, Spain and the Netherlands - took part, and four others (Denmark, Sweden, Scotland and Czechoslovakia) expressed their interest stated. Shortly afterwards, FIFA told the Swedish and Scottish Football Associations that FIEFF was an organization that pursued “purely commercial objectives”; she exploited "football practiced by women for show purposes in order to earn money with it".

The 1971 World Cup was finally awarded to Mexico, and the FIEFF was able to announce that 13 teams had confirmed their participation, although not all national (men's) associations formed an official national team, but - like the Fédération Française de Football  - a club team reinforced with some players from other clubs was given permission to participate. The German Football Association, on the other hand, had legalized women's football in principle in October 1970, but prohibited SC 07 Bad Neuenahr from participating in the World Cup in 1971.
The organizers finally determined some friendlies to qualification matches in which France (against the Netherlands), Denmark (against Sweden), Italy and England (against Austria) prevailed; In addition to the host Mexico, a women's team each from Argentina (beating Costa Rica) and Czechoslovakia (without qualifying game) were also admitted to the World Cup. The latter, however, did not receive a visa and had to cancel. The tournament was held between August 6 and September 5, 1971, several games were broadcast on Mexican television, the major newspapers in the country reported regularly on the course and most of the matches took place in front of a five-digit audience; According to the French coach Pierre Geoffroy , over 90,000 spectators attended the hostesses' games in the Aztec Stadium , France's game against Denmark was around 30,000. In order to make the event, which had been pre-financed by Martini & Rossi, an economic success, FIEFF had ensured that the two women’s supposedly most attractive for the paying audience could hold their preliminary round in separate groups, and without one Originally decided draw, the composition of which was determined: hosts Mexico first met Argentina and England, defending champions Denmark had to deal with Italy and France. The plan worked, and in the final the Danes got the upper hand 3-0 thanks to a hat trick from Susanne Augustesen .

When it became clear that another Women's World Cup in 1972 would not take place due to a lack of participants (the official national football associations did not want to spoil themselves with UEFA and forbade their clubs to report for the tournament), the FIEFF was forced to disband.

literature

  • Xavier Breuil: Histoire du football féminin en Europe. Nouveau Monde, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-84736-622-8
  • Laurence Prudhomme-Poncet: Histoire du football féminin au XXe siècle. L'Harmattan, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-7475-4730-2
  • Thibault Rabeux: Football féminin: Les Coupes du Monde officieuses. Le petit livre des grandes histoires. Self-published, o. O. 2019, ISBN 978-10-9590-642-2

Web links

Notes and evidence

  1. ↑ Breuil, p. 170
  2. ^ Eduard Hoffmann / Jürgen Nendza: Laughed, banned and celebrated. On the history of women's football in Germany. Landpresse, Weilerswist 2005, ISBN 3-935221-52-5 , p. 46ff.
  3. ↑ Breuil, pp. 190f .; Quote on p. 192
  4. ↑ Breuil, p. 191
  5. ↑ Prudhomme-Poncet, p. 234
  6. ^ Rainer Hennies / Daniel Meuren: Women's football. The long road to recognition. Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-89533-639-3 , pp. 37 and 39
  7. ↑ see the information on the RSSSF website (under web links )
  8. ↑ Breuil, p. 193
  9. ↑ a b Prudhomme-Poncet, p. 235
  10. ↑ Breuil, p. 195
  11. ↑ Breuil, p. 198