2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

FIFA announced that bidding had begun for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on 19 February 2019.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[5] Belgium expressed interest in hosting the tournament following the new deadline but later dropped out with Bolivia in September 2019.[6][7] Australia and New Zealand later announced they would merge their bids in a joint submission.[8] Brazil, Colombia, and Japan joined them in submitting their bid books to FIFA by 13 December.[9] However, both Brazil and Japan later withdrew their bids in June 2020 before the final voting.[10][11]

On 25 June 2020, Australia and New Zealand won the bid to host the Women's World Cup.[12] The decision came after a vote by the FIFA Council, with the winning bid earning 22 votes, while Colombia earned 13.[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. 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.

In July 2019, FIFA President Gianni Infantino 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.[14] 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.[15] 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 professionalisation of the women's game.[16]

On 31 July, the FIFA Council unanimously decided to expand the tournament to 32 teams, featuring eight groups of four.[3]

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.

— FIFA President, Gianni Infantino.[3]

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 FIFA World Cup used between 1998 and 2022.

Australia and New Zealand automatically qualify for the tournament as co-hosts. Qualifying matches expect to start in September 2021 and end in late 2022. The slot allocation was approved by the Bureau of the FIFA Council on 24 December 2020. The slots for the host nations, Australia and New Zealand, were taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederations, the AFC and OFC respectively.[17]

• AFC (Asia): 5 slots + 1 host slot (Australia)
• CAF (Africa): 4 slots
• CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 4 slots
• CONMEBOL (South America): 3 slots
• OFC (Oceania): 0 slots + 1 host slot (New Zealand)
• UEFA (Europe): 11 slots
• Play-off tournament: 3 slots

A ten-team play-off tournament will decide the final three spots at the Women's World Cup. The play-off slot allocation is 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

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency initially handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, after Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was found non-compliant for handing over manipulated laboratory data to investigators.[18] However, the Russia national team could still enter qualification, as the ban only applies to the final tournament to decide the world champions. The WADA ruling allowed athletes who were not involved in doping or the coverup to compete; however, a team representing Russia that uses the Russian flag and anthem cannot participate under the WADA decision.[19] The decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,[20] which upheld WADA's ban but reduced it to two years.[21] The CAS ruling also allowed the name "Russia" to be displayed on uniforms if the words "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team" have equal prominence.[22] Had Russia qualified for the tournament, its female players would have been able to use their country's name, flag or anthem at the Women's World Cup, unlike their male counterparts, as the ban will expire on 16 December 2022.[22][23] However, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA officially overturned the decision, implemented an indefinite ban on Russia from participating any FIFA tournament until further updates, officially ruled out Russia from participating in the 2023 Women's World Cup.[24]

Qualified teams

Team	Qualified as
Australia	Co-hosts
New Zealand	Co-hosts
Japan	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup semi-finalists
South Korea	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup semi-finalists
China PR	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup semi-finalists
Philippines	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup semi-finalists
Vietnam	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup play-offs winner
Sweden	UEFA Group A winners
Spain	UEFA Group B winners
France	UEFA Group I winners

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.[25]

On 31 March 2021, FIFA announced the final host city and venue selections. Five cities and six stadiums will be used in Australia, and four cities and stadiums in New Zealand. From the proposed venues, Newcastle and Launceston were not selected in Australia, and Christchurch was omitted in New Zealand. Eden Park in Auckland will host the opening game, with Stadium Australia in Sydney to host the 2023 Women's World Cup final match.[26][27]

Australia
Adelaide	Brisbane	Melbourne	Perth	Sydney
Hindmarsh Stadium	Lang Park (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
					Under construction
Australian host cities Perth Melbourne Sydney Brisbane Adelaide			New Zealand host cities Auckland Dunedin Hamilton Wellington
New Zealand
Auckland		Dunedin	Hamilton	Wellington
Eden Park		Forsyth Barr Stadium (Dunedin Stadium)	Waikato Stadium	Wellington Regional Stadium
Capacity: 50,000		Capacity: 30,748	Capacity: 25,800	Capacity: 34,500

The match schedule was announced by FIFA on 1 December 2021 without kick-off times.[28] 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. [29]

Due to the structure of the match schedule, Australia are the only confirmed team to play all their fixtures in one country.

The group stage fixtures for each group will be allocated to the following host country:[30]

• Groups A, C, E, G: New Zealand (Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Wellington)
• Groups B, D, F, H: Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney)

Competing countries will be divided into eight groups of four teams (groups A to H). Teams in each group will play one another in a round-robin, with the top two teams advancing to the knockout stage.

In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time will be played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If the score was still level after extra time, the winners will be determined by a penalty shoot-out.

•  Australia – Optus Sport[39]
•  Canada – CTV, TSN, RDS[40]
•  Denmark – NENT[41]
•  Finland - YLE[42]
•  New Zealand - Sky Sport, TVNZ[43]
•  Netherlands  - NOS[44]
•  Norway – NENT[41]
•  Sweden – NENT[41]
•  United States – Fox, Telemundo[45][46]

• Official website
• Australia-New Zealand 2023 bid website