UEFA Forum
Standards rise in women's game
The eight qualifiers for the 4th European
Championship in women's football provide
confirmation that standards are improving
and that 'emerging nations' are now serious
rivals for the established powers in the
European women's game.
Norway, Russia, Italy and Sweden qualified
for the final round, to be played next June,
by winning their respective groups. The
other four qualifiers were decided in home-
and-away play-offs between team which
had finished in second and third places in
the various qualifying groups. The major
surprise was that Spain, who had finished
behind Sweden and Denmark in their quali
fying group, went on to eliminate
England by beating them 2-1 at home and
drawing the away leg 1-1. The play-off
results were:
France v-Finland 2-0 3-0
Germany v Iceland 3-0 4-0
Denmark v Portugal 7-1 5-0
Spain v England 2-1 1-1
The decision to divide women's football into
two categories raised a few eyebrows, but
there is now evidence which suggests the
move was wise. It helped to produce more
matches between evenly-matched oppo
nents, and avoided humiliating scorelines
during the transitional phase when women's
football was trying to take root in countries
where there had not been a great tradi
tion.But the levelling-out process was con
firmed when the teams which finished in last
place in each of the four Category A groups
came face-to-face with the winners of the
four Category B groups in the promotion/-
relegation play-offs. The Netherlands was
the only country to hang on to its status in
the top bracket. Slovakia, Croatia and
Romania were all relegated and will be
replaced by Belgium, Switzerland and the
Ukraine in teh Category A qualifiers for the
1998-99 FIFA World Cup campaign. The
play-off results were:
Belgium v Slovakia 2-1 3-1
Netherlands v Czech Republic 2-1 1-0
Switzerland v Croatia 3-2 3-0
Ukraine v Romania 1-2 4-1
The venue for the 1997 European
Chamionship finals has yet to be confirmed.
The 1999 World Cup finals will be held in the
United States, though FIFA has still to con
firm the number of places allocated to
European teams.
France beat Finland 5-0 on aggregate and quali
fied for the Final Round of the Women's European
Championship. In this situation, the Finnish play
ers were very close to a consolation goal.
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