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Background
Peace Queen Cup - One Of The Game's “Big Four”
by Jeremy Ruane
The Football Ferns' Olympic plans commence in earnest this week, as they take part in a tournament which, despite only being introduced in 2006, has quickly become one of the “big four” competitions in the world of women's football.
The FIFA Women's World Cup, of course, is and always will be the crème de la crème of the code, the ultimate stage on which any player can perform. Its introduction in 1991 was the catalyst for tremendous growth in the sport.
Within three years, the Algarve Cup appeared on the scene, an event jointly organised by the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish national associations which takes place in Portugal each March, and to which invitations for non-European teams (outside of China and the USA) are highly coveted, and as rare as hen's teeth.
The introduction of women's football at the Olympic Games two years later completed the triumverate of tournaments to which female footballers the world over aspire to be part of.
These are the events at which they can make a favourable impression on the world stage, and perhaps secure themselves a lucrative move to clubs in leagues such as Germany's Frauen Bundesliga, Sweden's Damellsvenskan and, from next year, the relaunched professional league in the USA.
A fourth such event appeared on the scene two years ago, muscling its way onto the “must have” entries on a female footballer's CV because it was the first in the world to offer prize money to its entrants.
The Peace Queen Cup evolved from the Peace Cup, a tournament the Korean FA has administered on behalf of the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation since its inception in 2003, and which has quickly become a lucrative bi-annual pre-season tournament in which some of Europe's leading clubs participate.
The women's version was introduced in 2006, and featured an invited field of eight nations from five of FIFA's six confederations, playing in two groups of four, with group winners playing off in the final.
As well as the host nation, the other contenders were Australia (then Oceania`s champions, although
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based in Asia), Canada, the USA, Brazil, and the European trio of Italy, Denmark and Holland, the last two being late acceptances after initial invitees North Korea and Germany withdrew for varying reasons.
As tends to happen in most women's tournaments, the USA were triumphant, beating Canada 1-0 in the final. But it was the reward for both teams which caught the eye and captured the imagination - $US 50,000 each for winning their groups, with the tournament winners pocketing an extra $US 150,000.
It was the first time the women's game had ever seen prize money of this magnitude at stake in a tournament - not even at FIFA Women's World Cup Finals, to this point in time, had “filfy lucre” provided an added incentive to the prestige of being crowned world champions, a situation FIFA rectified ahead of last year's event in China.
The 2008 version of the Peace Queen Cup sees six of the original contenders returning, with Argentina and North Korea replacing the Danes and the Dutch. But the volatile nature of Korean politics saw the newly crowned Asian women's champions again having to decline late in the piece, which left a vacancy …
How the Football Ferns came to be on the waiting list is another story, but its roots were planted in an off-the-cuff late night chat at Auckland International Airport twixt coach and scribe, upon the squad's arrival home after qualifying for the Olympics.
A subsequent exchange of emails containing background information about the Peace Queen Cup, and the ball was in the court of John Herdman and NZ Football.
Events have duly taken their course, and over the course of the next week, the Football Ferns have the chance to secure a much-needed $US 50,000 - $NZ 65,000 - for NZF's women's football programme, and, hopefully, an invitation to the 2010 Peace Queen Cup tournament.
And an invitation to the last of the “big four”, the Algarve Cup next March, perhaps? No complaints from the players or this writer should one materialise, that's for sure!
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