Download or read book Women's Soccer: the Official History of the Unofficial World Cups written by Thibault Rabeux and published by . This book was released on 2019-11-29 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that a 15-year-old girl scored a hat-trick in the final of a World Cup in front of 110,000 people in Mexico? Or that prior to the formation of the United States Women's National Team in 1985, the country was successful represented in tournaments around the world by a club of young players from Texas? Well before the first ever official Women's World cup organised by FIFA in 1991, all sorts of unofficial tournaments were held around the world, in countries as far apart as Mexico, Italy, Japan and China. While some were put together by money-grabbing businessmen and others by women looking to promote the cause of feminism, the "renegade" tournaments held in the 1970s and 1980s played a crucial role in the development of women's soccer. Without these competitions, women would likely never have got the chance to have a World Cup of their own officially recognized by FIFA at any point in the 20th century. In addition to the pressure that they put on the international federation, the unofficial Women's World Cups were responsible for many an interesting - yet largely unknown - chapter in the history of women's football.This book traces the exploits of the first world champion women's teams as well as the lengthy process that finally led to official recognition. It contains stories never before documented, combining politics, sporting prowess and anecdotes the like of which would be impossible to imagine in today's context. The following chapters will take you through the seminal tournaments and matches from the 1970s and 1980s courtesy of exclusive interviews with the players of the time, those pioneers of women's soccer who represented the likes of France, Canada, Italy and Belgium. If France was able to host the Women's World Cup in 2019, it is thanks in no small part to the campaigning of a band of men and particularly women in the early 1990s. This book is about them - and what they achieved. About the author: Thibault Rabeux worked as a journalist on women's soccer for various French specialised media between 2012 and 2015. Here he combines his passion for the history of sport with a desire to shine a light on certain events that have long been under the radar.