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 2019, and provide the completed bidding registration by 16 April 2019. However, FIFA revised the bidding timeline as the tournament expanded to 32 teams on 31 July 2019.[3] Other member associations interested in hosting the tournament now had until 16 August 2019 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 2019.[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 2019.[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 officially 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. It is 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 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 an 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 2019, 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 early 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] If Russia qualifies for the tournament, its female players will be 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]

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Consecutive streak	Previous best performance
Australia	Co-hosts	25 June 2020	8th	8	Quarter-finals (2007, 2011, 2015)
New Zealand			6th	5	Group stage (1991, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019)

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.[24] FIFA will decide the final selection of venues. Eden Park in Auckland was suggested to host the opening game, with Stadium Australia in Sydney proposed for the 2023 Women's World Cup final match.[25]

Australia

Sydney		Brisbane	Melbourne
Stadium Australia	Sydney Football Stadium	Lang Park (Brisbane Stadium)	Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
Capacity: 83,500	Capacity: 45,000 (under construction)	Capacity: 52,500	Capacity: 30,050
Newcastle	Perth Melbourne Sydney Launceston Brisbane Adelaide Newcastle Australian candidate cities		Perth
Newcastle Stadium			Perth Rectangular Stadium
Capacity: 33,000			Capacity: 22,500
Launceston			Adelaide
York Park			Hindmarsh Stadium
Capacity: 21,000			Capacity: 16,500

New Zealand

Auckland	Wellington	Dunedin	Hamilton
Eden Park	Wellington Stadium	Dunedin Stadium	Waikato Stadium
Capacity: 50,000	Capacity: 34,500	Capacity: 30,748	Capacity: 25,800
Christchurch	Auckland Christchurch Dunedin Hamilton Wellington New Zealand candidate cities
Christchurch Stadium
Capacity: 18,000

•  Argentina – Televisión Pública TyC Sports
•  Australia – SBS
•  Brazil – Rede Globo, SporTV
•  Canada – CTV, TSN, RDS[26]
•  Chile – Chilevisión
•  China – CCTV
•  United States – Fox, Telemundo[27][28]
•  United Kingdom – BBC, ITV
• France – TF1
•  Germany – ARD, ZDF
•  Spain – Gol
•  Sweden – NENT[29]
•  New Zealand – Sky Sport
•  Norway – NENT[29]
•  Denmark – NENT[29]
•  Finland - YLE[30]

• Official website
• Australia-New Zealand 2023 bid website