By Samindra Kunti in Amsterdam
March 3 – The bidding race for the 2023 Women’s World Cup is shifting gear. On the eve of the UEFA Congress in the Dutch capital, the four bids pitched their tournament plans to the European governing body’s Executive Committee.
February 28 – Saudi Arabia has launched a women’s league, two years after women were first allowed into stadiums in the Gulf kingdom.
February 24 – UEFA has agreed a sponsorship with Hublot for its women’s competitions as well as its Together #WePlayStrong platform that aims to get more girls and women involved in the game.
February 20 – Spain’s women footballers have signed a historic first collective agreement over pay and conditions, after a battle for rights that led to an unprecedented strike in November.
February 18 – In 2021, Japan will replace their existing women’s Nadeshiko League with a fully-professional league that will require one female executive at each club.
February 5 – Canada secured top a semi-final match-up with Costa Rica in the Concacaf women’s Olympic qualifiers, avoiding the all-powerful US women’s team who have yet to concede a goal and will face Mexico in the other semi-final.
January 29 – Concacaf is using the Women’s Olympic qualifying tournament to reinforce its empowerment message with a series of immersive fan zone experiences and a collaboration with Girls Will Be.
January 8 – Amanda Duffy (pictured) will step down as president of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States next month to become executive vice president of the Orlando Pride.
December 23 – Nigeria have lost their bid to become the first African country to host a global women’s tournament after FIFA chose Costa Rica and Panama as joint hosts for next year’s Under-20 World Cup.
December 16 – A new law in Italy, removing the current salary cap, will allow women players at Serie A Femminile clubs to be paid as full time professionals.
December 13 – FIFA has released its final Women’s National Team world rankings for 2019 which show the USA ending the year as they began it at the top, following their impressive all-conquering unbeaten run to the France 2019 World Cup title.
December 5 – UEFA has announced the introduction of a new 16-team group stage for the Women’s Champions League from the 2021-22 season with centralised marketing and TV sales programme raise revenues and the profile of the women’s club game.
November 19 – A strike by women footballers in Spain’s top division has been called off after an agreement to reopen negotiations over the on-going pay dispute in the top tier of the women’s game.
November 12 – The equal pay lawsuit in the US between the United States women’s national team (USWNT) and US Soccer has taken a turn in favour of the women’s case in California.
November 6 – The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) that will close the gender pay gap in the country has been officially announced.