When and where is the Women’s World Cup draw?

England and their fans will find out who the Lionesses will face at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand next summer when the draw takes place on Saturday morning.

England Women enjoyed an almost perfect World Cup qualifying campaign, winning ten games out of ten without conceding a single goal and scoring 80 in the process.

The impressive results, plus this summer’s UEFA Women’s EUROs victory, means they will head to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 as one of the tournament favourites.

When is the FIFA Women’s World Cup draw?

The draw for next summer’s tournament will be taking place on Saturday at 7.30am BST (7.30pm local time).

Two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup champion Carli Lloyd headlines a star-studded line-up as she performs the duties of draw conductor alongside CNN sports anchor Amanda Davies.

They will be joined by former New Zealand international Maia Jackman, Australia Women’s first ever captain Julie Dolan, plus former men’s internationals Ian Wright, Gilberto Silva, Alexi Lalas and Geremi.

Where can you watch the Women’s World Cup draw?

You can watch the draw live on FIFA’s website or on the FIFA Women’s World Cup social media accounts for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

What is the Women’s World Cup draw format?

There will be 32 countries competing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, with 29 already qualified and another three set to be determined in the Play-Off Tournament, which is taking place between February 17 and 23.

The 29 qualified teams and three yet-to-be-determined sides will be split into four pots of eight teams for the draw based on the latest World Rankings.

The two hosts, Australia and New Zealand, will be joined by the six top-ranked teams in Pot 1, which will include England, who are now fourth behind leaders USA, Sweden and Germany respectively.

Pot 2 will be those countries ranked seventh to 14th out of those who have qualified and so on.

The full pots are:
Pot 1: New Zealand, Australia, USA, Sweden, Germany, England, France, Spain
Pot 2: Canada, Netherlands, Brazil, Japan, Norway, Italy, China, Korea Republic
Pot 3: Denmark, Switzerland, Republic of Ireland, Colombia, Argentina, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Jamaica
Pot 4: Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Morocco, Zambia, Group A play-off, Group B play-off, Group C play-off.

As well as the four team pots, there will also be eight pots representing the groups A to H. In each group pot, there will be four balls with the positions one to four, to determine where the team selected will be allocated within each group.

So a ball from one of the four team pots will be drawn, followed by a ball from one of the eight groups to confirm their position in that group.

Are there any constraints in the FIFA Women’s World Cup draw?

Yes. It has already been determined that hosts New Zealand will be in position one of Group A and Australia will likewise be first position in Group B to ensure they will be involved in the matches on the opening day of the World Cup on Thursday 20 July.

The teams in Pot 1 will then also occupy position one of the remaining groups C to H.

Where possible, FIFA try to avoid having more than one team from each of the qualification zones but with 11 teams (or potentially more depending on the Play-Off results) from the UEFA European zone, it means there will be at least one UEFA team in each group and three (or more) of the groups will have two UEFA sides.

There are also potential conflicts depending on who wins the Play-Offs, which you can read about here.

Who has already qualified for the Women’s World Cup?

There are six teams from the Asian Football Confederation region (Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic, Philippines, Vietnam), four from the Confederation of African Football (Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia) and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Canada, Costa Rica, Jamaica, USA). The South American Football Confederation has three (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia), New Zealand occupy an OFC spot and UEFA has 11 (Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland).

When does the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 take place?

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will start on Thursday 20 July 2023 and finish with the Final on Sunday 20 August 2023.

What is the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 tournament format?

There are eight groups of four teams, with each playing each other during matches between 20 July and 3 August. 

The top two from each group will then progress to the last 16 knock-out stages, which gets underway on Saturday 5 August.

The knock-out stage will then conclude with a third-place Play-Off on Saturday 19 August and the Final on Sunday 20 August 2023.