Fifa’s fears that the tournament would be a commercial failure and the players might not last 90 minutes proved unfounded at the Women’s World Championship For The M&Ms Cup

Like much of what is published on Fifa’s website, its account of what it calls “the inaugural Women’s World Cup” is served up with a healthy dollop of official spin and doesn’t quite tell the whole story. The basics are all covered, of course: staged in China in 1991 the tournament was contested by 12 teams and won by the USA, who beat Norway in a final staged at Guangzhou’s Tianhe Stadium and played in front of 65,000 people.

Fifa boasts that, for the first time in the organisation’s history, six female match officials were appointed to help officiate at the tournament “in keeping with the true spirit of the celebration”. One of them, Claudía de Vasconcelos of Brazil, was given the honour of refereeing the third-place play-off when Sweden played Germany. There are, however, a number of far more intriguing vignettes that are notable by their absence from the official account of a tournament at which world football’s governing body claims that “women’s football celebrated its true coming of age”. They serve to demonstrate just how far the sport had yet to go and has since come.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The first Fifa all-female referee team line up before the third-place play-off between Sweden and Germany. The officials are Linda Black of New Zealand (left), Claudía de Vasconcelos from Brazil and Zuo Xiudi of China. Photograph: Tommy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

The brainchild of the Brazilian sports administrator, João Havelange, the controversial, long-serving Fifa president, this footballing jamboree was only retrospectively awarded its status as the Fifa Women’s World Cup 1991™. At the time, it was called the The Fifa Women’s World Championship For The M&Ms Cup, a none-too-subtle nod to Mars, who had bought the sole sponsorship rights. Fifa had been unwilling to commit its valuable “World Cup brand” to the women’s game before a ball had been kicked lest the tournament should turn out to be a commercial failure.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Front (top) and reverse of a ticket for the Fifa Women’s World Championship which was held in China in 1991 and sponsored by Mars confectionery company. Photograph: National Football Museum

Hopes that it would be a success were high, however. Three years before China had staged a Fifa Women’s Invitation Tournament, won by Norway, to test the feasibility of a proper international championship. On the back of what was deemed a huge success, China was subsequently awarded the hosting rights for the inaugural “World Cup”, not least because its efforts to secure an Olympics meant it was in its best interests to ensure everything ran smoothly.

Matches were well attended in six stadiums ranging in capacity from 12,000 to 65,000. Workers from local factories were press-ganged into attending to ensure no seats were left empty while different sets of “fans” were allocated different teams to support. While 65,000 were present for the final it is unclear how many of those present had much of an idea what they were watching.

While Fifa is to be commended for its commitment to further advancing the cause of women’s football, not least because it has turned it into such a popular cash cow, its desperation to make allowances for those playing in China was slightly contradictory. Despite a fairly punishing schedule that meant the finalists, Norway and USA, had to play six matches each across two weeks, it was decided that games would last only 80 minutes in case the players found a full-length game too exhausting.

This particular wheeze prompted the USA captain, April Heinrichs, to joke that Fifa was “afraid our ovaries were going to fall out if we played 90”. Before the tournament Fifa also toyed with, but ultimately vetoed, the idea of using smaller footballs than those to which the players were accustomed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Nigeria goalkeeper Oyeka Anna Agumanu and the defender Omon-Love Branch combine to thwart Germany’s Heidi Mohr, who still scored twice in a 4-0 win. Photograph: Tommy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

Amateur players like all their rivals, the American players arrived jet-lagged after a 36-hour journey, having taken a series of flights to cut costs. Each player got by on $10 per diems and they played in hand-me-down kit that had been worn by a male youth team. Playing an intense pressing game in searing heat they saw off Sweden, Brazil and Japan to top their group and set up a quarter-final against Taiwan (then Chinese Taipei), whom they swatted aside 7-0. They got five more in the semi-final, beating a Germany side that scored two to set up a final against Norway.

Thanksgiving Day fell during the short gap between the semi-final and the final. The Americans gathered for a celebration with family members who had travelled with them and one very special guest, Pelé, who joined them for turkey with as many of the trimmings as they could find in China.

In a recent edition of Sports Illustrated’s Throw Back podcast, hosted by Grant Wahl, Michelle Akers made no secret of her contempt for their opponents in the final. “We hated those damned Norwegians,” said the team’s star striker, who was part of a three-pronged American attack, known as “the triple-edged sword”, along with Heinrichs and Carin Jennings. “I loved the Norwegians personally but we hated that team because they were so good and tough and dirty.” She scored both goals in a 2-1 win, and earned the golden boot for her 10 goals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mia Hamm (second left) clashes with Norway’s Agnete Carlsen during the final. Photograph: Tommy Cheng/AFP/Getty Images

Despite being near exhaustion due to a schedule that was as relentless as their high pressing game, the Americans had won what would eventually be known as the first Women’s World Cup. They did so to little fanfare as minimal broadcast coverage from one cable channel with a very short reach meant few at home could have watched them, even if they had known the tournament was taking place. Not that it bothered the winners. “I was not at all disappointed by anything,” said Heinrichs on Throw Back. “It meant the world to me. I’m in China, playing in a world event under the Fifa flag with national anthems and full stadiums.”

Having been feted by their hosts, Team USA arrived home to be greeted by no more than a handful of people, including two reporters. Their success, however, laid the groundwork for a subsequent surge in popularity for women’s football in the US while that of the tournament opened Fifa’s eyes to the benefits of making the Women’s World Cup a permanent and increasingly popular fixture in their calendar. “It was kind of like a silent trigger,” said Heinrichs of a low-key triumph that continues to echo around the women’s football world.