The 1999 FIFA Women's Football/soccer World Cup tournament kicks off in US of A in June (full details in GRi - hardcopy version).

The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup announced today that President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton have accepted the Organizing Committee's invitation to serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of next summer's third world championship of women's soccer to be held in the United States.

"This is a tremendous honor for the Women's World Cup and the Organizing Committee," said Donna de Varona, WWC Chair. "The President and First Lady have always championed efforts to increase opportunities for women, and the Women's World Cup is truly a breakthrough event for women's athletics.

We look forward to having the First Family share in the largest female sporting event in history."

The Women's World Cup will feature a record 16 countries, up from 12 nations in each of the previous tournaments that were held in China (1991) and Sweden (1995). In addition to the United States, which won the inaugural tournament, other nations to qualify for USA 99 include defending champion Norway, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, (North) Korea DPR, Denmark, Germany, GHANA, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Russia, Sweden, and Mexico.

The venues for the tournament are: Boston (Foxboro Stadium), Chicago (Soldier Field), Los Angeles (Rose Bowl), New York/New Jersey (Giants Stadium), Portland, Ore. (Civic Stadium), San Francisco Bay/San Jose (Spartan Stadium in San Jose and Stanford Stadium), and Washington, D.C. (Jack Kent Cooke Stadium).

The Official Opening Game and Ceremonies will be held June 19, 1999, at Giants Stadium with the Championship Final set for the Rose Bowl on July 10. All 32 matches will be televised by ABC/ESPN.