91-677: The Women's FA Challenge Cup is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football . Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup , FA Women's Cup, and now Women's FA Cup (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reasons). Designed as an equivalent to the FA Cup in men's football, the competition began in 1970–71 as the Mitre Challenge Trophy, organised by
182-808: A Paralympic event. The CONCACAF W Championship is a women's football competition organized by CONCACAF that often serves as the qualifying competition to the Women's World Cup and the Olympics. The CONCACAF W Gold Cup had its inaugural edition in 2024 . It featured 12 national teams (8 from the CONCACAF region, and 4 invited from the CONMEBOL region) and was won by the United States . European women's tournaments featuring national teams were held in Italy in 1969 and in 1979 as
273-727: A 5–1 scoreline. The 1939 competition was a more organised affair and the Edinburgh City Girls beat Dick, Kerr 5–2 in Edinburgh , following this up with a 7–1 demolition of Glasgow Ladies in Falkirk to take the title. The English Women's FA was formed in 1969 as a result of the increased interest generated by the 1966 World Cup . The ban in England was maintained by the FA for nearly fifty years, until January 1970. The next year, UEFA recommended that
364-411: A consistent national channel (with dedicated slots for regional news and other regional programmes) evolved out of the old ITV network – a federation of separately owned regional companies which had significantly different local schedules and branding. During the 1990s, the differences between the schedules in each region gradually reduced – partly through the consolidation of ownership and partly through
455-570: A deal to take over Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television in 1997, giving the broadcaster access to both Yorkshire and North East franchises. There was no further movement in the take-over of franchises until 2000, when Border Television and all of its radio assets were sold to Capital Radio Group , who consequently sold the television broadcasting arm to Granada Media Group. Granada then went on to purchase all of UNM's television interests (including its ITV franchises), which brought Meridian, Anglia, and HTV into its power, but due to regulation, Granada
546-696: A final total attendance of 312,199. The first known World Cup tournaments for women's teams are the 1970 Women's World Cup in Italy and the 1971 Women's World Cup in Mexico, both of which hold attendance records and were organised by the international women's association FIEFF . Some other major tournaments were the Women's World Invitational Tournament in Taiwan (1978–1987) and the Women's Mundialito in Japan and Italy (1981–1988). FIFA effectively ignored women's football prior to
637-571: A group of independent regional broadcasters sharing programmes. The unification was consolidated in 2004 when Granada plc acquired Carlton Communications to form ITV plc . By then, the two companies had acquired all the regional Channel 3 companies in England and Wales. ITV plc later acquired Channel Television in the Channel Islands and UTV in Northern Ireland. ITV1 is today the biggest and most popular commercial television channel in
728-448: A new channel branding called ITV Day , used to identify ITV1 between 9:25am and 6:00pm. ITV Day was treated as a separate entity to ITV1 and featured its own presentation set focusing using the colours of red, orange and yellow and featured scenes of typical "daytime" activities. Promotions were used in a similar format to ITV1, and all daytime programmes advertised within ITV1 hours branded with
819-527: A new common name, ITV1, was launched on 11 August 2001. On 28 October 2002, regional continuity and idents were dropped in the English regions while the service in Wales was rebranded ITV1 Wales. At this time all English regional continuity announcers were replaced with a single team of national continuity announcers – initially, there were six but the number was later reduced to just four. In 2005, ITV plc introduced
910-597: A new trophy for the competition's winners, to mark the WFA's tenth anniversary. 1970–71 cup winner Sue Lopez said it was suspected that a player "tucked it away somewhere in a trophy cabinet", and she was trying to locate the original cup for the National Football Museum in 2015. The current Women's FA Cup trophy was one of the first prestigious trophies to be made in the Thomas Lyte silver workshop. The following
1001-416: A penalty shoot-out and winning its fourth title in the competition. While a number of features continue to improve, this is not the case for female coaches. They continue to be under-represented in a number of European women's leagues. However, the popularity and participation in women's football continues to grow. In 2022, FC Barcelona had the two largest reported attendances for women's football since
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#17328555916701092-663: A possible re-structure of the ITV regional layout, stating the existence of smaller regional services "no longer makes sense" relative to the regional audience they serve. The plan was confirmed in September 2007, reducing the number of regional news programmes from 17 to just 9, saving around £35 to £40 million each year, and affecting every ITV plc regional company with the exception of ITV London, ITV Wales, and ITV Granada. These changes were implemented in early 2009. All sub-regional news programmes ceased; ITV Border 's Lookaround programme
1183-416: A tweaked version with the new UTV logo. On 1 January 2019, ITV refreshed its on-air presentation again. The logo and trailers were modified to use a different colour scheme, but the main change was to the idents. In a project known as ITV Creates , a new set of idents were used weekly. They were built around interpretations of the ITV logo commissioned from British visual artists. The first artist featured
1274-484: Is a competition for women's national football teams governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). India won the first 5 editions, beating Nepal four times and Bangladesh once in the final. Bangladesh is the current champion having defeated Nepal by 3–1 goals on 19 September 2022 in the final. The OFC Women's Nations Cup is a women's football tournament for national teams who belong to
1365-514: Is a list of Women's FA Cup seasons and final results. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, television coverage of the WFA final was provided by Channel 4 . Between 2001 and 2008, the final of the tournament was covered by the BBC and presented by Celina Hinchcliffe , Rebecca Lowe , Ray Stubbs and Jake Humphrey; the punditry team was usually current players like Sue Scott and commentary usually by Steve Wilson and Lucy Ward or Faye White and always played on
1456-484: Is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It was first contested in 1991, but was not held biennially until 1998. Nigeria is the most successful nation in the tournament's history with 11 titles. The CAF Women's Champions League is an international competition that involves the top women's club teams from countries affiliated with
1547-626: Is not available in the main channels (e.g. channel 203 on Sky, channel 34 on Freeview, channel 112 on Freesat), and may be in the regional variation channels instead (e.g. channel 973 on Sky). In the English regions (plus Border Scotland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man), the channel was known from 2006 until 2013 as ITV1, from 2013 until 2022 as ITV, and from 15 November 2022, ITV1 at all times. Regional references no longer appear before any programming at all in these areas. ITV network areas without full ITV1 channel branding and continuity: In June 2007, ITV plc executive chairman Michael Grade hinted at
1638-571: Is registered to broadcast within the European Union/EEA through ALIA in Luxembourg. Since 27 March 2013, ITV1 London has been offered by British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) to members of HM Forces and their families around the world, replacing the BFBS3 TV channel, which already carried a selection of ITV programmes. ITV was not consistently promoted as a brand name until 1989 although
1729-421: Is usually spoken by the continuity announcer prior to local programmes. After ITV1's unification in 2002, the two London franchises, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television were merged into a single entity, ITV London , while the Wales and West franchise lost its official identity, and instead was substituted with ITV1 Wales and ITV1 West on-air, with no reference linking the two together (the licence
1820-552: Is with Paris Saint-Germain , with matches between the two teams sometimes referred as the "Classique féminin". Paris is OL's main contender for national titles, as they finished in second place of D1 Féminine seven times. Lyon had never lost the D1 title to PSG until 2021 when PSG finished ahead of Lyon, and won five Coupe de France finals against Paris. In 2017 both teams reached the Champions League final, with Lyon beating Paris after
1911-520: The 1970 Women's World Cup in Italy, supported by the Martini & Rossi strong wine manufacturers, and entirely without the involvement of FIFA . This event was at least partly played by clubs and won by Denmark. A second edition, the 1971 Women's World Cup , was hosted by Mexico the following year. The final, also won by Denmark, was played at Estadio Azteca , the largest stadium in North America at
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#17328555916702002-577: The 1971 Women's World Cup final between Mexico and Denmark (110,000) at the Azteca Stadium , when they played Real Madrid (91,553) and Wolfsburg (91,648) at Camp Nou for the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League . In April 2024, the 2023–24 A-League Women season set the record for the most attended season of any women's sport in Australian history, with the season recording a total attendance of 284,551 on 15 April 2024, and finishing with
2093-462: The 1999 final on penalties against China (with a competition-record crowd of over 90,000 in Pasadena ). Germany won consecutive world titles in 2003 and 2007, winning finals against Sweden and Brazil respectively. Japan became champions in 2011 , the country's first senior football world championship. The United States won the tournament again in 2015 and 2019 . Spain won the tournament for
2184-596: The 2024 final to win their first FA Cup title. The competition, founded in 1970, was sponsored as the Mitre Challenge Trophy until April 1976. As a Women's Football Association competition until 1992–93, it was known as the WFA Cup or more informally as the Women's FA Cup . After the running of the competition passed to the FA in 1993–94, the Association renamed it as the FA Women's Cup , until 2015. The name
2275-659: The Freeview HD service. The channel has its roots in ITV HD, which began as a trial service in 2006 on a low-power digital terrestrial ( DVB-T ) channel from London's Crystal Palace transmitting station , and on Telewest TV Drive cable service. The channel was revived on 7 June 2008, in time for the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, this time exclusively available on the Freesat digital satellite service. With its debut on Freeview HD,
2366-640: The Laws of the Game , are used for both women's and men's football. After the "first golden age" of women's football occurred in the United Kingdom in the 1920s, with one match attracting over 50,000 spectators, The Football Association instituted a ban from 1921 to 1970 in England that disallowed women's football on the grounds used by its member clubs. In many other nations, female footballers faced similarly hostile treatment and bans by male-dominated organisations. In
2457-581: The Midlands . Days afterwards, Granada plc , owner of Granada Television of the North West , purchased London Weekend Television (LWT). Meridian's owner, Mills and Allen International, then went on to purchase Anglia Television in the same year, before merging to become United News and Media (UNM) in 1995. UNM then went on to purchase Wales and West broadcaster, HTV in 1996, while Carlton purchased Westcountry Television later that year. Granada then agreed
2548-754: The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) was launched with initial support from the soccer federations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2017, Liga MX Femenil was launched in Mexico and broke several attendance records. The league is composed of women's teams of the men's counterpart teams in Liga MX . On 20 March 2024, the league in collaboration with the NWSL , announced a new international competition named Summer Cup . This competition will feature six teams from Liga MX Femenil that will compete against teams from
2639-668: The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). The competition has served as a qualifying tournament for the FIFA Women's World Cup since 1991. After the lifting of the FA ban, the Women's Football Association held its first national knockout tournament , the 1970–71 WFA Cup . Southampton Women's F.C. was the inaugural winner and became the Cup-winner eight times. From 1983 to 1994, Doncaster Belles reached ten out of eleven finals, winning six of them. As of 2023, Chelsea are
2730-508: The UEFA Women's Championship was then dominated by Germany , who won eight titles, including six in a row from 1995 to 2013. The only other teams to win, as of 2022, are Norway in 1993 , the Netherlands at home in 2017 , and England at home in 2022 . The UEFA Women's Champions League is an international competition that involves the top women's club teams from countries affiliated with
2821-480: The Women's Football Association (WFA). There were 71 entrants, including teams from Scotland and Wales. The WFA ran the competition for the first 23 editions, during which time Southampton won the cup eight times. The Football Association (FA) began administering English women's football in mid-1993. Arsenal holds the record for most titles overall, having won fourteen times. The current cup holders are Manchester United , who defeated Tottenham Hotspur 4–0 in
Women's FA Cup - Misplaced Pages Continue
2912-592: The 1970s, international women's football tournaments were extremely popular, and the oldest surviving continental championship was founded, the AFC Women's Asian Cup . However, a woman did not speak at the FIFA Congress until 1986 ( Ellen Wille ). The FIFA Women's World Cup was first held in China in 1991 and has since become a major television event in many countries. Women may have been playing football for as long as
3003-526: The 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament in China. FIFA's first officially-recognised women's international match is France–Netherlands (1971), albeit a retroactive recognition decided in 2003 . The first FIFA Women's World Cup was held in China in November 1991 and won by the United States . The runners-up, Norway , became the 1995 champions, beating Germany in that final, in Sweden. The United States won
3094-399: The 2000s, although the switch to a single unified service was gradual. ITV1 became the generic on-screen brand name used by the twelve franchises of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The ITV1 brand was introduced on 11 August 2001 by the franchisees owned by Carlton and Granada, initially used alongside the local regional name, such as "ITV1 Anglia" and "ITV1 Meridian". However, it became
3185-671: The African governing body CAF . The AFC Women's Asian Cup is a quadrennial competition in women's football for national teams which belong to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is the oldest women's international football competition and premier women's football competition in the AFC region for national teams. The SAFF Women's Championship , also called the South Asian Football Federation Women's Cup ,
3276-518: The Anglia region is divided into West and East. This arrangement was suspended in February 2009, when ITV implemented plans to save the company £40m a year on the amount it spent making local news, but was reinstated (with slightly fewer sub-regions) on 16 September 2013. Since 27 October 2002, on all ITV plc-owned franchises, regional programming has been preceded or plugged by an oral regional announcement, in
3367-557: The Borders, for example, saw a return to a Border-only news service, with all stories covered solely on Southern Scotland and Cumbria, similar to the pre-Tyne Tees merger in February 2009. Meanwhile, in the Westcountry, viewers in Devon and Cornwall also saw a return to a more localised service. A high-definition simulcast of ITV1, ITV1 HD , debuted on 7 June 2008, with the technical launch of
3458-534: The European Competition for Women's Football . They were not recognized as "official" by UEFA, which opposed women's football until the 1970s. The UEFA championship began in 1984 under the name European Competition For Representative Women's Teams . Now, it is also commonly referred to as the UEFA Women's Euro. The 1984 tournament was won by Sweden . Norway won the 1987 edition. Between 1987 and 2013,
3549-594: The European governing body UEFA . The Copa América Femenina is the main competition in women's football between national teams that are affiliated with CONMEBOL . The Copa Libertadores Femenina , formally the CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina , is the international club competition for women's teams that play in the CONMEBOL region. The competition started in 2009 in response to the increased interest in women's football. The Women's Africa Cup of Nations
3640-422: The FA stating that "the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged." Players and football writers have argued that this ban was due to envy of the large crowds that women's matches attracted, and because the FA had no control over the money made from the women's game. Dick, Kerr Ladies player Alice Barlow said, "we could only put it down to jealousy. We were more popular than
3731-436: The FA. Despite sponsorship by these major companies, entering the tournament has actually cost clubs more than they often get in prize money. In 2015 it was reported that even if Notts County had won the tournament outright the paltry £8,600 winnings would leave them out of pocket. The winners of the men's FA Cup in the same year received £1.8 million, with teams not even reaching the first round proper getting more than
Women's FA Cup - Misplaced Pages Continue
3822-462: The ITV Association set out a basic package with a new "ITV" logo, which included idents, promotions and general on and off air design, and an edit of this package was designed for each franchise holder within the ITV network. The dual branded idents included a large "ITV" logo, in which the "V" contained part of the franchise logo, and written below the logo in a grey capitalised font was the name of
3913-539: The ITV Day logo. A similar "UTV Day" branding was adopted in Northern Ireland. In January 2006, the channel adopted a new on-air look, designed mainly to improve cross-channel promotion across ITV's multichannel presence. The new logo brought ITV1, ITV2, and ITV3 in line with ITV4's and had been observed on various billboard ads in the UK when the new identity was first used on-screen on 16 January 2006. The overhaul also put an end to
4004-662: The May Day bank holiday. The final was also simulcast on BBC Radio 5 Live . In 2009, the final was moved to ITV1 , with commentary from Jon Champion and Lucy Ward. Sky Sports secured a three-year deal for live coverage from 2010 until 2012. Sponsors of the original WFA competition (1970–1993) included Mitre , Pony wines and Mycil . In the FA competition, the sponsors have been UK Living (1995–1998), AXA (1998–2002), Nationwide Building Society (2002–2006) and E.ON (2006–2011). From 2007, Tesco obtained additional branding and advertising rights through their partnership agreement with
4095-575: The NWSL. The inaugural edition is scheduled to kick-off in July 2024. A 2014 FIFA report stated that at the beginning of the 21st century, women's football was growing in both popularity and participation, and more professional leagues were being launched worldwide. From the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup tournament held in 1991 to the 1,194,221 tickets sold for the 1999 Women's World Cup , visibility and support of women's professional football had increased around
4186-624: The UTV name was retained, but on 2 April 2020 the station began using ITV's national continuity-at first as an emergency measure due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom , then announced as a permanent transition on 26 November 2020. The ITV1 channel consists of thirteen regional franchises in England, Wales and Northern Ireland which each broadcast regional news and other local programming to its area. Many franchise areas in England have sub-regions providing separate regional news bulletins. For example,
4277-478: The United Kingdom. ITV1, and its predecessor regional channels, have contended with BBC One for the status of the UK's most watched television channel since the 1950s. However, in line with the other former analogue channels, ITV1's audience share has fallen as a result of availability of multi-channel television, and more recently streaming services, in the UK. Following the creation of the Television Act 1954 ,
4368-479: The Women's National Football League. The Indian Women's League was launched in 2016. The country has held the top-tier tournament, Indian Women's Football Championship , since 1991. In 1985, the United States women's national soccer team was formed. Following the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup , the first professional women's soccer league in the United States, the WUSA , was launched and lasted three years. The league
4459-643: The channel was re-branded as ITV1 HD in December 2009. The time-shift channel ITV1 +1 launched on all TV platforms, including Freeview in 2011. ITV channels are available on cable and IPTV in Switzerland and Liechtenstein . In the Republic of Ireland, ITV (as UTV ) was widely available; however, UTV Ireland was launched in 2015 and replaced UTV in the Republic of Ireland. UTV has since ceased broadcasting in Ireland. ITV
4550-408: The early years, the network was sometimes referred to as the "ITA network", and the companies as "ITA contractors" or "ITA stations". The companies were principally identified on air using by their own names though some did make reference to ITV too. There were also specific uses of the ITV name – for instance, ITV Schools , ITV Sport , and Children's ITV were used for programming strands. In 1989,
4641-517: The establishment of a commercial television service in the UK began. The Independent Television service, later abbreviated to " ITV ", was made up of distinct regions, with each region run by different franchisee companies. The three largest regions, London, the Midlands, and the North of England, were initially sub-divided into weekday and weekend services, with a different company running each. The service
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#17328555916704732-640: The first 11 WFA Cup competitions. Doncaster Belles reached nearly every final between 1982–83 and 1993–94, and won the trophy six times. The current entry points as of the 2024–25 season: All other clubs enter in the First Qualifying round. The original Mitre Challenge Trophy has "disappeared", according to the WFA History records. This cup was replaced in May 1979 when the Football Association donated
4823-407: The first competition in the spring of 1922. The winners were Stoke Ladies who beat Doncaster and Bentley Ladies 3–1 on 24 June 1922. In 1937, the Dick, Kerr Ladies F.C. , who had lost to Scotland's Rutherglen Ladies in 1923 but continued to be proclaimed as "world champions", played the Edinburgh City Girls in the "Championship of Great Britain and the World". Dick, Kerr won the competition with
4914-427: The first recorded "national" women's football event, known as the "Kartini Cup", took place in 1981. The competition was held on an amateur level. Later competitions were also held in an amateur and semi-professional level, including the 1982 appearance of the first women's league, Galanita. The Pertiwi Cup , which drew contestants from throughout all of Indonesia, was first played in 2006. The first professional league
5005-420: The first round proper getting more than the women's winners. ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV ) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc . It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for the central and northern areas of Scotland where STV provides the service. ITV1 as
5096-404: The first time in 2023 . Since Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament , a Women's Football Tournament has been staged at the Olympic Games . Unlike in the men's Olympic Football tournament (based on teams of mostly under-23 players), the Olympic women's teams do not have restrictions on professionalism or age. The participation of Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic tournament
5187-436: The first women's international matches against a French XI team in 1920, and also made up most of the England team against a Scottish Ladies XI in the same year, winning 22–0. Despite being more popular than some men's football events (one match saw a 53,000 strong crowd), women's football in England was halted in December 1921 when The Football Association outlawed the playing of the game on association members' pitches,
5278-405: The format ITV1 regional brand ; e.g. ITV1 Granada. In English regions, up until 13 November 2006, regional names were also superimposed (post-production) on these idents below the ITV1 logo, but this practice has since ceased. ITV Wales remains unaffected, and still continues to use dual-branding across all of its on-screen presentation. Despite the lack of regional names on screen, the regional name
5369-451: The former ITV Day brand, which was axed in favour of a full-time ITV1 identity. On 14 January 2013, ITV unveiled a huge rebranding, including a new corporate logo inspired by handwriting, and the renaming of the flagship channel back from ITV1 to just ITV. Its colour schemes vary on-air to complement its surroundings; a practice referred to internally as "colour picking". Following the buyout in 2016, UTV also rebranded to these idents, using
5460-410: The game has existed. Evidence shows that a similar game ( cuju , also known as tsu chu ) was played by women during the Han dynasty (25–220 CE), as female figures are depicted in frescoes of the period playing tsu chu . Annual matches being played in Midlothian , Scotland, are reported as early as the 1790s. In 1863, football governing bodies introduced standardized rules to prohibit violence on
5551-509: The globe. However, as in some other sports, women's pay and opportunities are lower in comparison with professional male football players. Both national and international women's football have far less television and media coverage than the men's equivalent, but also generally have far lower average attendances. This discrepancy is on-going, while research indicates some viewers are not even able to distinguish between professional women's and men's football. Olympique Lyonnais main rivalry
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#17328555916705642-507: The men and our bigger gates were for charity". Despite the ban, some women's teams continued to play. The Northern Rugby Union did not follow the FA ban, so the short-lived English Ladies Football Association (1921–1922) played some of its matches at rugby grounds. In other countries, women's football was further debilitated by nationwide bans which often resembled the English FA's measures. The German Football Association banned women's football from 1955 until 1970. Women's football
5733-506: The name in January 2006, bringing it to the Channel Islands . As national continuity is often used on Channel Television, ITV1 national branding had been seen on the station for several years previously. The licensees that use the ITV1 brand are: ITV Anglia , ITV Border , ITV Central , ITV Channel Television , ITV Cymru Wales , ITV Granada , ITV London (weekday) , ITV London (weekend) , ITV Meridian , ITV Tyne Tees , ITV West Country , ITV Yorkshire , and UTV . ITV Wales & West
5824-411: The name was in common public use. Independent Television, shortened to ITV , was the collective and generic name for the companies which held commercial television franchises. The name referred to the initial regulator the Independent Television Authority (ITA). It was keen to use this name for its franchisees to highlight the fact they were also public services and not simply commercial broadcasters. In
5915-478: The national associations in each country should manage the women's game. In 2002, Lily Parr of Dick Kerr's Ladies was the first woman to be inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame. She was later honoured with a statue in front of the museum. It was not until 2008 (87 years later), that the FA issued an apology for banning women from the game of football. In 1970, the Torino-based Federation of Independent European Female Football (FIEFF) ran
6006-424: The pitch, making it more socially acceptable for women to play. The first match of an international character took place in 1881 at Hibernian Park in Edinburgh , part of a tour by Scotland and England teams. The Scottish Football Association recorded a women's match in 1892. The British Ladies' Football Club was founded by activist Nettie Honeyball in England in 1894. Honeyball and those like her paved
6097-518: The profile of the competition". In addition, all 460 clubs that participate in the competition would gain access to, and training on Adobe Express , a graphic design tool. Women%27s football (soccer) Women's association football , more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer , is the team sport of association football played by women . It is played at the professional level in multiple countries , and 187 national teams participate internationally . The same rules, known as
6188-407: The regional broadcaster. However, only half of the regional broadcasters opted to use the package, which had completely failed by 1997. In 1998, another second ITV common presentation (once again using dual-branding with the ITV name) was launched, under the theme, "TV from the Heart". By 2001, all eleven franchises of England and Wales were owned by either Granada plc or Carlton Communications, and
6279-474: The sole on-air identity in October 2002 when the two companies decided to create a single unified playout of the channel, with regional references used only prior to regional programming, such as local news and weather. Carlton and Granada went on to merge in 2004, creating ITV plc , which now owns thirteen of the fifteen regional ITV licences. The ITV1 name was only used in England, Wales, Southern Scotland , and Isle of Man , until Channel Television adopted
6370-473: The standardisation in the volume and scheduling of regional programmes. In 2002, a major change of appearance occurred when all ITV regions in England and Wales adopted national continuity. Regional logos vanished and regional names were mentioned only before regional programmes. Effectively this left ITV1 in England and Wales looking like a national channel with slots for regional opt-outs – similar to channels like BBC One and France 's France 3 – rather than
6461-406: The time of the First World War , female employment in heavy industry spurred the growth of the game, much as it had done for men fifty years earlier. A team from England played a team from Ireland on Boxing Day 1917 in front of a crowd of 20,000 spectators. The Irish side of this match was dramatised in the play Rough Girls in 2021. Dick, Kerr Ladies F.C. of Preston, England played in one of
6552-510: The time, in front of crowds estimated at 110,000 or 112,500 attendees. During the 1970s, Italy became the first country to have professional women's football players on a part-time basis. Italy was also the first country to import foreign footballers from other European countries, which raised the profile of the league. Players during that era included Susanne Augustesen (Denmark), Rose Reilly and Edna Neillis (Scotland), Anne O'Brien (Ireland) and Concepcion Sánchez Freire (Spain). Sweden
6643-479: The title holders and Arsenal are the club with a record 14 wins. Despite tournament sponsorship by some companies, entering the cup actually costs clubs more than they get in prize money. In 2015, it was reported that even if Notts County were to win the tournament, the £8,600 winnings would leave them out of pocket. The winners of the Men's FA Cup in the same year received £1.8 million, with teams that did not even reach
6734-492: The two companies. By 1981, due to regulation, the company was forced to de-merge; however, they resumed their alliance in 1993 as Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television , which therefore owned the two franchises, and integrated the two companies' assets more than its predecessor. The intense race to own a larger share of the ITV network began in 1994, when Carlton Communications , the owner of London weekday broadcaster Carlton Television, took control of Central Independent Television in
6825-485: The way for women's football. However, the women's game was frowned upon by the British football associations, and continued without their support. It has been suggested that this was motivated by a perceived threat to the "masculinity" of the game. In August 1917, a tournament was launched for female munition workers' teams in north-east England. Officially titled the "Tyne Wear & Tees Alfred Wood Munition Girls Cup", it
6916-444: The women's winners. In September 2020, the FA announced that health and life insurance and investment company VitalityHealth had signed a deal to become the sponsor of the competition until July 2023. In November 2023, after three years with Vitality, the FA announced that Adobe Inc. would become the sponsor of the competition for three years, through to July 2026. The partnership would focus on "increasing fan engagement and raising
7007-401: Was Ravi Deepres . UTV continued with its 2013-era idents until it adopted ITV continuity and trials in 2020. However, it used the new on-air presentation on trails with a tweaked version to accommodate the UTV logo. On 15 November 2022, ITV renamed the channel back from ITV to ITV1 which was used as the name on the channel between 2001 and 2013. ITV1 also received another rebrand, as part of
7098-420: Was a bone of contention because England and other British Home Nations are not eligible to compete as separate entities. Eventually, both the women's and men's Great Britain teams fielded some players from the other home nations, but without their associations' active support. Although there are women's teams of blind football (5-a-side) and cerebral palsy football (7-a-side), women's football has never been
7189-592: Was also banned in France from 1941 to 1970. In Brazil, the Vargas regime and the military dictatorship legally prohibited women and girls from playing football from 1941 to 1979. Following the FA ban on women's teams on 5 December 1921, the English Ladies' Football Association was formed, with 58 affiliated clubs. A silver cup was donated by the first president of the association, Len Bridgett. A total of 23 teams entered
7280-554: Was also known as "The Munitionettes' Cup". The first winners of the trophy were Blyth Spartans , who defeated Bolckow Vaughan 5–0 in a replayed final tie at Middlesbrough on 18 May 1918 in front of a crowd of 22,000. The tournament ran for a second year in season 1918–19, the winners being the ladies of Palmer's shipyard in Jarrow , who defeated Christopher Brown's of Hartlepool 1–0 at St James' Park in Newcastle on 22 March 1919. At
7371-556: Was forced to sell HTV to Carlton. By this time, all of the franchises in England and Wales were owned by either Carlton or Granada. On 2 February 2004, Granada plc officially merged with Carlton Communications, creating ITV plc , although it was in effect, a takeover by Granada. In 2011, ITV plc acquired Channel Television from its private owners Yattendon Group plc . On 19 October 2015, ITV announced they were to buy UTV for £100 million subject to regulatory approval. The deal also included UTV Ireland , UTV's Irish channel. Initially,
7462-533: Was formally split in two by Ofcom from 1 January 2014, when the West region merged with the Westcountry region to form the West Country franchise). Channel Television adopted the ITV1 brand on-air prior to the 2011 ITV plc takeover of the channel. UTV was purchased by ITV plc in 2016, but did not adopt national continuity until April 2020 (see above). Areas with full ITV1 channel branding and continuity: * ITV1 +1
7553-402: Was formed by the unification of eleven of the ITV licences. The United Kingdom Broadcasting Act 1990 changed many of the rules regulating the ITV network, which most notably relaxed separate franchise ownership, and hours of production. However, as far back as 1974, Yorkshire Television and its North East neighbour, Tyne Tees Television, formally created Trident Television , a merged entity of
7644-512: Was held in 2019 under the name Liga 1 Putri . In Australia, the W-League, now known as A-League Women , was formed in 2008. In 2015, the Chinese Women's Super League (CWSL) was launched with an affiliated second division, CWFL. Previously, The Chinese Women's Premier Football League was initiated in 1997 and evolved to the Women's Super League in 2004. From 2011 to 2014, the league was named
7735-596: Was held on 9 May 1971 at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre . The WFA was initially named the Ladies Football Association of Great Britain , and Scottish clubs were successful in reaching the first three finals of this tournament (albeit as runners-up). Two of these clubs were runners-up in England while also winning the Scottish Women's Cup in the same season, Stewarton Thistle in 1971 and Westthorn United in 1973. Southampton Women's F.C. won eight of
7826-469: Was merged with ITV Tyne Tees ' North East Tonight programme, ITV Westcountry's Westcountry Live merged with ITV West 's The West Tonight programme, and ITV Meridian 's Meridian Tonight south and south east editions merged with ITV Thames Valley 's Thames Valley Tonight . On 16 September 2013, ITV reverted to a more localised system, as was the case prior to a shake-up in 2009, with 14 news regions (rather than eight). This meant people in
7917-539: Was officially reworded as the Women's FA Cup in June 2015, before that year's final . The tournament rules, as in the men's FA Cup, name it the Women's FA Challenge Cup . Previous national cup competitions included the English Ladies Football Association Challenge Cup in 1922, won by Stoke Ladies. The first women's Mitre Challenge Trophy matches were played in 1970 , and the first final
8008-474: Was spearheaded by members of the World Cup-winning American team and featured players like Mia Hamm , Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain , as well as top-tier international players like Germany's Birgit Prinz and China's Sun Wen . A second attempt towards a sustainable professional league, the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), was launched in 2009 and folded in late 2011. The following year,
8099-629: Was the first to introduce a professional women's domestic league in 1988, the Damallsvenskan . In 1989, Japan became the first country to have a semi-professional women's football league, the L. League – still in existence today as Division 1 of the Nadeshiko League . In 2020, Japan established the first-ever women's professional league in Asia, the WE League , which started on fall 2021. In Indonesia,
8190-634: Was the only exception, using the name ITV1 Wales at all times for the Welsh part of its broadcast area, as it has a higher regional commitment. Latterly, the ITV1 Wales name was only used on break-bumpers and regionally advertised programmes until 2013. Non ITV plc-owned licensees on the ITV network, nowadays only STV Group , generally did not refer to the ITV name. The network production arms of nowadays ITV plc-owned licensees have been gradually combined since 1993, to eventually form ITV Studios . The ITV1 channel
8281-576: Was very heavily regulated until the early 1990s. The regulator, the ITA (and later the IBA) operated the transmitters, awarded franchises and had a great influence over schedules, content and technical standards. Legally the regulator was the broadcaster – the companies were contracted to provide an "independent television service" to compete with the BBC. The ITV network existed in a region-heavy form from its inception through to
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