The FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2023 kicks off on July 20 in what is expected to be the biggest women\u2019s soccer event in the history of the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women\u2019s soccer has a longer past than many realize. The first FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup took place in 1991, but women from across the globe were coming together to compete on the pitch decades earlier. In 1970, the Federation of Independent European Female Football (FIEFF) held the inaugural World Cup-adjacent tournament, called Coppa del Mondo<\/a>, with eight nations participating in the unofficial event; Denmark defeated the hosting Italians in the final<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was the first of several non-FIFA international tournaments within the women\u2019s game over the next 20 years before the sport\u2019s massive governing body was finally convinced to accept half of the global population under its wing. But women\u2019s soccer goes back much further than that \u2013 the first international match was in 1881 between Scotland and England (though it remains unclear how truly international it was), and its reception was mixed<\/a>, to say the least. Regardless, the game continued on and grew steadily in Europe into the 1920s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n