FIFA has announced its slot allocation for the teams in Women’s World Cup 2023, which will be held in New Zealand and Australia collectively.
The Bureau of the FIFA Council on Monday announced several important decisions has been taken regarding the concerns upon the upcoming FIFA competitions and some major decisions have been taken regarding the Women’s World Cup 2023 along with the cancellations of the upcoming U17 and U20 World Cup.
Both the host countries, Australia and New Zealand, will automatically qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 as their slots have been taken directly from the places allocated to their confederations, the AFC and the OFC respectively.
After the huge success of 2019 edition of the Women’s World Cup, FIFA last year decided to expand the tournament from 29 teams to 32 teams and thus helps in growing the Women’s Football.
In major decisions taken by the football governing body FIFA, UEFA has been allotted the highest with 11 direct slots, 6 direct slots for the AFC, 4 direct slots for Concacaf, 3 direct slots for CONMEBOL, 4 direct slots for CAF, and 1 direct slot for the OFC.
The three remaining slots will be decided through a ten-team playoff tournament as 2 play-off slots for the AFC, 2 play-off slots for CAF, 2 play-off slots for Concacaf, 2 play-off slots for CONMEBOL, 1 play-off slot for the OFC, and, 1 play-off slot for UEFA.
The format for playing the tournament playoffs also has been announced, as Four teams will be qualifying in the tournament based on the latest FIFA Women’s World Ranking before the play-off draw, with a maximum of one qualifying team per confederation.
In the first group, comprising three teams, 2nd qualifying team will play for a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup against the winners of the knockout game involving the two unseeded teams in the group.
In the second group which comprises three teams, 2nd qualifying team will play for a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup against the winners of the knockout game involving the two unseeded teams in the group.
In the third group which comprises four teams, 3rd qualifying team and 4 qualifying teams will play against the two unseeded teams in the group, with the two winners then playing for a place in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
