2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

FIFA's confederations organised their qualifications through continental championships, with the exception of UEFA which organised 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 as normal.

The Chadian and Pakistani football associations were suspended by FIFA, thus excluding them from entering qualifications.[20] Rwanda, Sudan, DR Congo and São Tomé and Príncipe entered qualification but withdrew later.[21][22][23][24] Kenya withdrew before the second round of qualifiers.[25] 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.[26] Iraq withdrew after the AFC draw.[27] Due to the uncertainty of women's sport after the Taliban takeover of the country, Afghanistan withdrew from qualification.[28] Due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks in their squads, Women's Asian Cup hosts India withdrew from qualification.[29] American Samoa withdrew due to continuing difficulties related to the pandemic.[30] Russia were disqualified from competing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[31]

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.[32]

• 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 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

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.[33]

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.[upper-alpha 1] Zambia were the lowest ranked team to qualify, ranked 81st at the time.[34]

AFC (6)  Australia (co-hosts)  China  Japan  Philippines (debut)  South Korea  Vietnam (debut) CAF (4)  Morocco (debut)  Nigeria  South Africa  Zambia (debut)

CONCACAF (6)  Canada  Costa Rica  Haiti (debut)  Jamaica  Panama (debut)  United States CONMEBOL (3)  Argentina  Brazil  Colombia OFC (1)  New Zealand (co-hosts)

UEFA (12)  Denmark  England  France  Germany  Italy  Netherlands  Norway  Portugal (debut)  Republic of Ireland (debut)  Spain  Sweden  Switzerland

Team qualified   Team failed to qualify   Team withdrew or suspended   Did not enter

The final draw took place at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, on 22 October 2022 at 19:30 NZDT (UTC+13), prior to the completion of qualification.[35][36] The three winners of the inter-confederation play-off were not known at the time of the draw.[37]

Retired American international and 2-time Women's World Cup champion Carli Lloyd and CNN International sports presenter Amanda Davies conducted the draw. Each confederation had a retired international representing them as a draw assistant: Maia Jackman of New Zealand for the OFC and Julie Dolan of Australia for the AFC alongside men's internationals Ian Wright of England for UEFA, Alexi Lalas of the United States for CONCACAF, Geremi of Cameroon for the CAF and 2002 World Cup winner Gilberto Silva of Brazil for CONMEBOL. Snowboarding Olympic gold medalist Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand and 4-time swimming Olympic gold medalist Cate Campbell of Australia also assisted the draw.[38]

For the draw, the 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on the FIFA Women's World Rankings of 13 October 2022. Pot one contained both co-hosts New Zealand and Australia (both automatically placed in positions A1 and B1, respectively) along with the best six teams. Pot two contained the next best eight teams, with the next best eight teams being allocated into the following pot (pot three). Pot four contained the lowest ranked teams, along with the placeholders for the three inter-confederation play-off winners. With the exception of UEFA, teams from the same confederation could not be drawn in the same group. However, since each inter-confederation play-off group contained multiple confederations, the placeholders were identified by the seeded teams in their respective play-off pathways to avoid any draw constraints. The draw started with pot one and ended with pot four, with the team selected being allocated to the first available group alphabetically. Pot 1 teams were automatically drawn to position 1 of each group, with the following positions drawn for the remaining pots. The pots for the draws are shown below.[39]

The official emblem was jointly designed by Toronto-based studio Public Address and Los Angeles-based Works Creative Agency and unveiled on 28 October 2021 during a live show. The emblem features a football encircled by 32 coloured squares, reflecting the expanded field of the tournament, and the natural terrains of the two host nations. The overall branding of the tournament will feature designs reflecting the host nations' Indigenous peoples, created by Australian artist Chern'ee Sutton and Maori artist Fiona Collis. Furthermore, the tournament's branding will also incorporate the native names of all host cities. Alongside the emblem, the official slogan of the tournament, "Beyond Greatness", reflects FIFA's goal for the event to further expand the prominence of women's football, was also revealed.[68][69] The names of the host cities in their native names (the local Indigenous Australian languages and Māori in New Zealand) were used as part of the official branding.[44]

The 2023 Women's World Cup was the first Women's World Cup to have its broadcasting rights sold as a standalone product rather than being packaged as a bonus of purchasing broadcasting rights for the Men's World Cup. FIFA stated that they saw "huge interest" in the separate bidding process and hoped for more regional partners to sign on. FIFA set an aim to reach a global audience of 2 billion, up from 1.12 billion at the previous edition in France.[70]

In October 2022, FIFA rejected multiple bids from various public and private broadcasters for what it described as significantly under-priced bids, urging broadcasters to bid more, saying it is what the women's game deserves.[71] Romy Gai, FIFA's Chief Business Officer, called on broadcasters to seize the "opportunity" presented by the women's game, further saying that these bids did not reflect the popularity of women's football by noting the record viewership figures of the 2019 Women's World Cup.[72] During a FIFA Council meeting, Gianni Infantino also expressed his disappointment towards broadcasters offering "100 times less" compared to the men's tournament, claiming that the women's game is exponentially growing with similar viewership figures as the men's, and asked that the market be willing to consider higher bids for the broadcast rights for the tournament.[73] Some European broadcasters were concerned about the timezone difference affecting viewership figures, something that was not an issue with the France-hosted 2019 Women's World Cup.[74]

In May 2023, Infantino threatened a media blackout for Europe's "big five" (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain) if they did not offer more[75] (the "big five" earn much more in sport revenue and in broadcasting sport compared to the rest of the world);[76] FIFA conceded that a deal with British broadcasters was not far off, however, as the joint BBC-ITV bid was the highest at £9 million (also higher than Infantino's accusations), with Channel 4 also a possible broadcaster for the UK, while Italy's bid was considered to be particularly low.[74]

The tournament's official mascot was unveiled on 19 October 2022. The mascot's name is Tazuni, which is a portmanteau of the Tasman Sea and 'Unity'.[91] It represents a little penguin (Eudyptula minor[92]), endemic to New Zealand, FIFA incorrectly stated this penguin (E. minor) was endemic in Australia, where a closely related species (Eudyptula novaehollandiae) was described as a new and distinct in 2016.[93]

On 24 January 2023, The word "OCEAUNZ" was unveiled as the official match ball for the tournament by Adidas.[94]

OCEAUNZ's design is inspired by the unique natural landscapes of the two host nations, with visuals nodding to the vast mountains of Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia’s connection with the Indian Ocean. Its name reflects the coming together of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand as host nations of the tournament. OCEAUNZ features the same connected ball technology as was seen in Qatar at the FIFA World Cup 2022. This provides precise ball data, which will be made available to Video Match Officials in real-time.[94]

On 28 October 2021, same day as the official emblem and slogan unveiling, British DJ and music producer Kelly Lee Owens released "Unity" as the official theme song for the event.[95]

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) initially handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, after the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was found non-compliant for handing over manipulated laboratory data to investigators.[96] However, the Russian national team could have still entered qualification, as the ban only applies to final tournaments to decide the world champions. The WADA ruling allowed athletes who were not involved in doping or the coverup to compete, but not a team representing Russia that uses the Russian flag and anthem.[97] The decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),[98] which upheld WADA's ban but reduced it to two years.[99] The CAS ruling also allowed the name "Russia" to be displayed on uniforms as long as the words "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team" have equal prominence.[100] Had Russia qualified for the tournament, its female players would have been able to use their country's name, flag and/or anthem at the Women's World Cup, unlike their male counterparts, as the reduced ban expired on 16 December 2022.[100][101]

However, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA announced a number of sanctions impacting Russia's participation in international football on 27 February 2022. Russia was prohibited from hosting international competitions, and the national team had been ordered to play all home matches behind closed doors in neutral countries. Under these sanctions, Russia would not be allowed to compete under the country's name, flag, or national anthem; like the Russian athletes' participation in events such as the Olympics,[102] the team would compete under the abbreviation of their national federation, the Russian Football Union ("RFU"), rather than "Russia".[103] The women's team had remained largely unaffected with participation in qualifications, albeit suspended "until further notice". On 2 May, UEFA announced further sanctions regarding the ongoing suspension, ruling the women's team ineligible to compete further in the UEFA qualifiers. As a result, the Russian team were automatically unable to qualify, with Denmark automatically qualifying due to no further competition.[104][105][106][107]

On 1 February 2023, it was reported that Visit Saudi, the tourism board of Saudi Arabia, was going to be one of the main sponsors of the tournament. FIFA had pursued the sponsorship without consulting either of Football Australia or New Zealand Football, the host football associations. Shortly after the announcement, the World Cup Organising Committee asked FIFA for clarification on the sponsorship and how the partnership would work. Human Rights Watch said the decision showed disregard for how Saudi Arabia treats women, with the decision called sportswashing by human rights campaigns.[108][109] Another major concern was the mixed message of the partnership as many players at the World Cup, as members of the LGBT+ community, would not be able to visit Saudi Arabia without fear of prosecution.[110] Players and coaches including Alex Morgan, Emma Hayes, Becky Sauerbrunn and Megan Rapinoe publicly denounced the deal and urged FIFA not to partner with Visit Saudi.[111][112][113] In March 2023, Football Australia and New Zealand Football publicly opposed the potential sponsorship;[114] later in the month, FIFA announced they would drop the sponsorship deal.[115]

Following condemnation of FIFA in the Western world for banning the OneLove rainbow armband at the Men's World Cup in 2022, FIFA agreed to pursue discussion of captains wearing the armband in advance of the Women's World Cup to "have a solution in place" before the start of the tournament.[116] In May 2023, two top-level female executives at FIFA, Fatma Samoura and Sarai Bareman, announced to the media that discussions had begun, including consulting with national teams and their captains. The spokespersons conceded that football was indeed an appropriate platform for players to advocate for human rights, with Bareman saying that FIFA wants players to "feel [like] they were able to use their voice" at the tournament and that they "understand, very well, that our female footballers like to use the sport as a platform to speak about issues that they're passionate about and one of those is the rainbow".[110]

Samoura opined that there would be less tension around the issue than at the Men's World Cup; Australian sport network Optus Sport noted that the cultural differences that were part of the controversy for the Men's World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal, should not be a factor in a decision for the Women's World Cup. Still, Samoura and Bareman did not indicate that FIFA would permit the OneLove armband, instead saying they were seeking a solution with "balance".[110] Samoura told Optus: "if there is a way for us to promote human rights and the One Love band is a way to do it, we should find common ground with whoever would like to flag issues we don't discuss enough."[110] Days later, Football Australia CEO James Johnson said that the talks with FIFA were positive and that he expects there will be players wearing rainbow armbands at the World Cup, as well as ones with slogans reflecting inclusivity (as had been implemented at the Men's World Cup), but did not comment on if OneLove armbands would be permitted.[117]

James Johnson also indicated that displaying flags representing Indigenous peoples of both Australia and New Zealand was important to the host nations, and were discussing with FIFA whether this would be permitted at the same time as discussing captain's armbands.[117]

After Infantino had said that comparatively low broadcasting rights bids for the tournament from the "big five" countries was an insult to "all women worldwide", and that FIFA had a "moral and legal obligation" to demand more money, he and FIFA were faced with criticism for causing the issue themselves and then lecturing on it.[118][119] Former FIFA Council member Moya Dodd said that FIFA had no place to say the broadcasting rights for the Women's World Cup were worth more when the rights had previously been bundled with the Men's World Cup but the combined bid values were attributed by FIFA entirely for the men's tournament, and entirely distributed within the men's game.[119] Ricardo Fort, who has worked with sponsorship partners, also said that the bid value was not the issue, with how FIFA distributed such revenue instead being the root cause; he said that partners had long called on FIFA to unbundle the rights and also to separate revenue 50-50 between the men's and women's games.[118] Dodd said that FIFA should review its bundled deals and attribute a fair proportion back to the women's game instead of blackmail broadcasters.[119]

Dave Roberts, who has worked with FIFA's in-house streaming broadcaster FIFA+, was among the figures to suggest that FIFA created the problem so that they could exclusively broadcast the tournament in the "big five" countries themselves, with "potential for strategic digital partnerships". Glen Killane, Executive Director of Eurovision Sport, which holds the rights to broadcast the tournament in many European markets, blamed FIFA for not creating a dialogue with broadcasters on the planned direction of growth for women's football.[118] Former player Rebecca Sowden agreed, saying that FIFA restricting broadcast in the biggest markets would be worse for the women's game, as it disrupts the ecosystem of fans, and that without FIFA working to demonstrate interest in women's football all the time, European broadcasters should be wary about limited exposure and off-peak timezones.[120]