Chung, who is Chairman of the Organising Committee for the U-20 Women’s World Cup and FIFA Vice-President, was pleased with the organisation of the event and lauded the standard of football on show in Canada.
“I have visited all four host cities and enjoyed the matches I’ve seen. Overall, I would say the tournament has been a success in terms of organisation and the level of the football, and I would like to thank the National Organising Committee for helping achieve this.
“I have also been very impressed by the dedication and commitment of the volunteers and would like to thank them for their contribution. The key to this tournament is the development of young talent and we have seen lots of good players on show.
“I would like to congratulate Germany and Nigeria on reaching this stage of the tournament and stress again how important this tournament is for the development of women’s football,” Chung told a press conference in Montreal.
Tatjana Haenni, FIFA Deputy Director of the Competitions Division and Head of Women’s Competitions, echoed Chung’s sentiments.
“My thanks go to the Canadian Soccer Association and the National Organising Committee for all the work they have done. It’s a long process in the lead-up to these tournaments – or two tournaments in this case – and we are really happy to see the outcome of all the hard work.
“At FIFA, we’re quite happy with this competition so far: the teams have performed well on the pitch, and off the pitch things have also gone well. This tournament has also been very important in terms of preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup and on some operational issues – mainly adjusting to the size of the country – we really have learned a lot.
“There are some areas we know we can improve on but generally speaking we’re very satisfied with how everything has gone. We’re really looking forward to next year now and I have no doubt that this will also be a really great event,” Haenni says.
Germany won the tournament thanks to a goal eight minutes into extra time by Lena Petermann to settle a match that, like the semi-final against France, had seen the Germans outplayed for long stretches.
Nigeria, who had given so much to the match, proved unable to respond. Germany saw out the remaining minutes with a degree of comfort and can now savour the familiar feeling of being crowned champions of the world.
Victor Montagliani, Chairman of the National Organising Committee (NOC) and Canadian Soccer Association President, thanked FIFA for the chance to host a rapidly growing tournament.
“I’d like to first and foremost thank our FIFA colleagues not only for the opportunity to host this prestigious competition, but also for their support throughout the tournament and in the build-up. Our stadiums, our training grounds and three of our host cities for 2015 have been tested and, like FIFA, we’re very satisfied.
“From a Canadian point of view, we’re happy with the run our own team had and don’t be surprised see a lot of these players, not just for us but for the other teams, back playing at next year’s senior event. We’re also really pleased with attendances, particularly for Canada matches, which averaged 16,000 and culminated in over 22,000 turning out for our quarter-final against Germany.
“Throughout the tournament there have been over 250,000 spectators and we’re very pleased with the following it’s had. For us, it was very important to use this tournament not only as a launching pad for next year but to treat it with the status a World Cup deserved,” Montagliani says.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015™ takes place in June next year.
New Zealand hosts the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup from May 30 to June 20, 2015.
Ends

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