The FIFA Women's World Cup, which is formally titled as the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023, will take place for the ninth time in 2023. It is an international women's association football competition that is held every four years and is managed by FIFA. Australia and New Zealand will share hosting duties for the event, which will happen from 20 July to 20 August 2023. It will be the first FIFA Women's World Cup to have more than one host nation, and also the first senior World Cup for either sex to be held across multiple confederations, as Australia is in the Asian Confederation, while New Zealand is in the Oceanian Confederation. In addition, this tournament will be the first to feature the expanded format of 32 teams from the previous 24, replicating the same format used for the men's World Cup from 1998 to 2022.
The opening match will be contested between New Zealand and Norway at Eden Park, Auckland on 20 July 2023. The final will take place on 20 August 2023 at Sydney Olympic Stadium in Australia. The United States are the defending champions, having won the previous two (2015 and 2019) tournaments.
Host selection:
Bidding began for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on 19 February 2019.[5] Member associations interested in hosting the tournament had to submit a declaration of interest by 15 March, and provide the completed bidding registration by 16 April. However, FIFA revised the bidding timeline as the tournament expanded to 32 teams on 31 July. Other member associations interested in hosting the tournament now had until 16 August to submit a declaration of interest, while the completed bidding registration of new member associations and re-confirmation of prior bidders was due by 2 September.
Nine countries initially indicated interest in hosting the events: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, South Korea (with interest in a joint bid with North Korea), New Zealand and South Africa. Belgium expressed interest in hosting the tournament following the new deadline but later dropped out, as did Bolivia, in September 2019. Australia and New Zealand later announced they would merge their bids in a joint submission. Brazil, Colombia, and Japan joined them in submitting their bid books to FIFA by 13 December. However, both Brazil and Japan later withdrew their bids in June 2020 before the final voting.
On 25 June 2020, Australia and New Zealand won the bid to host the Women's World Cup.[15] The decision came after a vote by the FIFA Council, with the winning bid earning 22 votes, while Colombia earned 13. Neither country had previously hosted a senior FIFA tournament. This will be the first Women's World Cup to be hosted in multiple countries, and only the second World Cup tournament to do so, following the 2002 FIFA World Cup, held in Japan and South Korea. It is also the first FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first senior FIFA tournament to be held in Oceania, and the first FIFA tournament to be hosted across multiple confederations (with Australia in the AFC and New Zealand in the OFC). Australia is the second association from the AFC to host the Women's World Cup, after China in both 1991 and 2007.
Format:
In July 2019, FIFA President Gianni Infantine proposed an expansion of the Women's World Cup from 24 to 32 teams, starting with the 2023 edition, and doubling the tournament's prize money. The proposal came following the success of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and the prior edition of the tournament in 2015, which after increasing from 16 to 24 teams set an attendance record for all FIFA competitions besides the men's FIFA World Cup. Expanding the tournament to allow eight additional participating teams gave more member associations a greater opportunity to qualify for the final tournament. This fostered the growing reach and professionalization of the women's game.
On 31 July, the FIFA Council unanimously decided to expand the tournament to 32 teams, featuring eight groups of four.
The astounding success of this year's FIFA Women's World Cup in France made it very clear that this is the time to keep the momentum going and take concrete steps to foster the growth of women's football. I am glad to see this proposal becoming a reality.
The tournament opens with a group stage consisting of eight groups of four teams, with the top two teams progressing from each group to a knockout tournament starting with a round of 16 teams. The number of games played overall increases from 52 to 64. The tournament replicates the format of the men's FIFA World Cup used between 1998 and 2022.
Teams:
Qualification:
Main article: 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
FIFA's confederations organized their qualifications through continental championships, with the exception of UEFA which organized its 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 qualification if they chose to do so. Australia competed at 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 United States competed in qualification through the CONCACAF W Championship.
The Chadian and Pakistani football associations were suspended by FIFA, thus excluding them from entering qualifications. Rwanda, Sudan, DR Congo and São Tomé and PrÃncipe entered qualification but withdrew late 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 qualification. American Samoa withdrew due to continuing difficulties related to the pandemic. Russia were disqualified from competing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The allocation of slots for each confederation was confirmed by the FIFA Council on 25 December 2020. The slots for the two host nations were taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederations.
- AFC (Asia): 6 slots (including co-hosts Australia)
- CAF (Africa): 4 slots
- CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 4 slots
- CONMEBOL (South America): 3 slots
- OFC (Oceania): 1 slot (including co-hosts New Zealand)
- UEFA (Europe): 11 slots
- Inter-confederation play-off tournament: 3 slots
A ten-team play-off tournament decided the final three spots at the Women's World Cup. The play-off slot allocation was as follows:
- AFC (Asia): 2 slots
- CAF (Africa): 2 slots
- CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 2 slots
- CONMEBOL (South America): 2 slots
- OFC (Oceania): 1 slot
- UEFA (Europe): 1 slot
Of the 32 nations qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, 20 countries competed at the previous tournament in 2019. Haiti, Morocco, Panama, the Philippines, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia will be making their debuts at the FIFA Women's World Cup. This World Cup will be the first ever FIFA tournament the Philippines have taken part in. This is Panama's, Portugal's and Vietnam's first ever FIFA women's competition, having only taken part in various FIFA men's tournaments. Zambia made history as the first landlocked country in Africa to qualify for a World Cup for either sex. Morocco became the first-ever Arab country to qualify for the Women's World Cup, while the Republic of Ireland marked their first-ever debut at any senior women's tournament. Denmark made their first appearance in 16 years after missing three consecutive tournaments, their last appearance being in 2007. Costa Rica, Colombia and Switzerland returned to the tournament after missing the previous one in 2019. Italy qualified for two consecutive women's World Cups for the first time in their history, after three sporadic appearances in 1991, 1999 and 2019. Africa will have four representatives for the first time in the competition's history.
Thailand, Cameroon, Chile, and Scotland, all of whom qualified for the 2019 Women’s World Cup, did not qualify for the 2023 tournament. Iceland was the highest ranked team in the FIFA Women's World Rankings that failed to qualify, ranked 16th at the time. Zambia were the lowest ranked team to qualify, ranked 81st at the time.
Venues:
In the bid book they presented to FIFA, Australia and New Zealand suggested using a minimum of 10 stadiums—five in each nation—across 13 potential into three main travel hubs: the South Hub, which would have included Perth, Adelaide, Launceston, and Melbourne; the East Hub, which would have included Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, and Launceston; and the New Zealand Hub, which would have included Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. The Sydney Football Stadium, which will open on August 28, 2022, will replace the previous football stadium on the same site and was the only new venue to undergo significant renovations throughout the bid stage. ovations spread over 12 host cities. The venues were originally to be split up
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.
Team base camps:
Schedule:
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, was set to take place on the same day at Sydney Football Stadium. Later, the schedule was tweaked by moving the Australia vs Republic of Ireland to Stadium Australia. 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.
The group stage fixtures for each group will be allocated to the following host country:
- Groups A, C, E, G: New Zealand (Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Wellington)
- Groups B, D, F, H: Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney)
The final kick-off times were confirmed on 24 October 2022, two days after the draw, in order to "optimize the specific match details for the benefit of supporters, teams and the media". On 31 January 2023, it was confirmed that Australia vs Republic of Ireland had been moved from Sydney Football Stadium to the larger Stadium Australia due to strong ticketing demand.
Squads:
Main article: 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup squads:
Each side is required to submit to FIFA a preliminary squad of 35 to 55 players, which FIFA will not make public. By July 9, 2023, each side must select a final roster of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers, from the preliminary squad. Up to 24 hours before the start of the team's first game, players in the final squad may be changed by a player from the preliminary squad due to a significant illness or injury.
0 Comments