The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup is scheduled to be the 9th edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, here’s world cup qualifications details.
2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup : Qualification, venue
The tournament will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the first time that the FIFA Women’s World Cup will have two host nations, and is scheduled to take place from 20 July to 20 August 2023.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host countries | Australia New Zealand |
| Dates | 20 July – 20 August |
| Teams | 32 (from 6 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 10 (in 9 host cities) |
The 2023 tournament will see the Women’s World Cup expanded from 24 to 32 teams.
The United States are the defending champions, having won the previous two tournaments in 2015 and 2019.
The match schedule was announced by FIFA on 1 December 2021 without kick-off times.
The opening match of the tournament, featuring co-hosts New Zealand, will be played on 20 July 2023 at Eden Park.
Whilst the inaugural match in Australia, will take place on the same day at Sydney Football Stadium.
The group stage fixtures will be split between the co-hosts with each hosting four groups.
The third-place match will be played at Lang Park on 19 August 2023, with the final to be played at Stadium Australia on 20 August 2023.
2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualification
FIFA’s confederations organise their qualifications through continental championships , with the exception of UEFA which organise their own qualifying competition.
Australia and New Zealand, as co-hosts, qualified automatically for the tournament leaving the remaining 207 FIFA member associations eligible to enter qualifications if they chose to do so.
Australia competed in the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, whilst New Zealand did not enter the OFC Women’s Nations Cup the same year.
The reigning Women’s World Cup champions USA compete in qualifications through the CONCACAF W Championship as normal.
Chad and Pakistan football associations were suspended by FIFA, thus excluding them from entering qualifications.
Rwanda, Sudan, DR Congo and São Tomé and Príncipe entered qualifications but withdrew Kenya withdrew before the second round of qualifiers.
North Korea and Turkmenistan withdrew from the Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers due to safety concerns and travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Iraq withdrew after the AFC draw.
Due to the uncertainty of women’s sport after the Taliban takeover of the country, Afghanistan withdrew from qualification.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks in their squads, Women’s Asian Cup hosts India withdrew from competition.
American Samoa withdrew due to continuing difficulties related to the pandemic.
Venue
Australia and New Zealand proposed 13 possible venues across 12 host cities for the tournament in the bid book submitted to FIFA, suggesting a minimum of 10 stadiums be used—five in each country.
The original proposal of the joint bid would have seen the venues be divided into three main travel hubs: South Hub containing Perth, Adelaide, Launceston and Melbourne, East Hub containing Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and Launceston, and New Zealand Hub containing Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin.
| Australia | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide (Tarntanya) | Brisbane (Meaanjin) | Melbourne (Naarm) | Perth (Boorloo) | Sydney (Gadigal) | |
| Hindmarsh Stadium | Suncorp Stadium (Brisbane Stadium) |
Melbourne Rectangular Stadium | Perth Rectangular Stadium | Stadium Australia | Sydney Football Stadium |
| Capacity: 16,500 (expanding to 22,000) | Capacity: 52,500 | Capacity: 30,050 | Capacity: 22,500 | Capacity: 83,500 | Capacity: 45,000 |
The Sydney Football Stadium was the only new stadium within the bid that is undergoing a major renovation replacing the old Football Stadium on the same site.
The bid evaluation was released on 10 June 2020 by FIFA, which noted that the majority of the stadiums listed in the bid meet FIFA’s hosting requirements with capacity, aside from Adelaide and Auckland which didn’t meet the minimum requirements capacity wise for stages of the competition proposed for.
Most stadiums featured in the bid, are planned to have minor renovations with new floodlighting, pitch renovations and gender-neutral changing rooms in time for the tournament.