Promotional Information

Presents the first in-depth global analysis of women's football both where it has come from and where it is headed.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations 
Foreword 
Acknowledgments 
Introduction 
Part One: Rapid Growth in the United States
1. Title IX, Soccer Moms, and Pioneering Players 
2. U.S. National Team, 19961999: "Welcome to Our Party" 
3. Professional Women's Soccer and the wusa: "The Best Three Years of My Life" 
4. Women's Professional Soccer 
Part Two: Challenges in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America
5. The State of the Game in the Middle East 
6. Challenges and Successes in Africa 
7. Latin America: Fighting Machismo Attitudes 
8. Women Athletes: Objects versus Wholesome Role Models 
Part Three: Building Leagues and National Team Programs
9. Ancestral Roots: Leveraging the Diaspora to Build the Game Abroad 
10. National Leagues around the World 
11. Overcoming a Fifty-Year Ban in England 
12. Canada's Youthful Road to Success 
Conclusion: "The Future of Football Is Feminine" 
Afterword: 2011 Women's World Cup 
Appendix of Tables 
Selected Bibliography 

About the Author

Timothy F. Grainey is a sports journalist who has written extensively on soccer for World Football Pages, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Soccer365.com, Equalizersoccer.com, and TheGlobalGame.com.

Reviews

"Beyond Bend It Like Beckham serves as a great history lesson for a sport where persistent struggle has led to remarkable growth. It is a wonderfully insightful look at the development of the sport in the United States and abroad. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any women's soccer enthusiast." Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, Olympic gold medallist, World Cup champion, and co-head coach of women's soccer at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The fascinating history of women's soccer around the world is a story that transcends sports... This important book tells the interesting story of the past, present, and future of the sport that woke up Americans to the success of Title IX during the wildly popular 1999 Women's World Cup. But there's much more to women's soccer than those memorable few weeks, and Grainey covers it all." Christine Brennan, ABC News commentator and author of Best Seat in the House.