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Events

2023
21 Oct
 
31 Oct
2019
21 Nov
 
01 Dec
2017
19 Aug
 
30 Aug
Chinese Taipei, Taipei City
2015
03 Jul
 
14 Jul
Republic of Korea, Gwangju
2013
06 Jul
 
17 Jul

FISU Technical Committee Chairs

Alan Snoddy Technical Committee Chair
gb gbr
Emily Lau Technical Committee Chair
hk hkg

History of Football in FISU

Long before our era, many cultures played a certain kind of ball game. But contemporary football as we know it today traces back to England in the 1900s, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses. From there on, football experienced an increasing professionalisation and popularity first in Europe and later all over the world. However, it was not until 1966 in Galicia that football was included into the programme of FISU.

The first tournament was held in the structure of a European University Championship and eight European teams battled for the first gold medal in university football. During the following years, FISU successfully staged many World University Football Championships, steadily growing in participation figures. At the Summer Universiade in 1979 in Mexico City, football was included as an optional sport and twenty-four teams competed in the tournament. Three years later, FISU staged the final edition of the FISU World University Football Championship, and football was then included as a compulsory sport at the Summer Universiade in 1985 in Kobe (JPN). The greatest surprise at this tournament came from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who took the final against Uruguay.

In 1993, university football was opened for women and Buffalo hosted the first edition of the FISU women’s football tournament where China beat the United States in their home match. In the following years the success of women’s football progressed further. By the time of the Universiade in Beijing in 2001, it was so well-accepted that the Executive Committee of FISU decided to increase the number of women’s teams from 8 to 16, equalling the number of men’s teams. In Shenzhen, in 2011, China beat Japan in a technically fantastic and breathtaking final, delivering a match on the level of a women’s world cup game.