Following the success recorded at the 2019 Women World Cup in France, the Federation of International Football Associaion (FIFA) has increased the number of participating teams from 24 to 32, Sportsbash.com.ng reports.
In a statement today December 24th, 2020, the world football governing body stated how the countries will be selected from each Confederation after the qualifiers.
Africa has three representatives in the last edition of Women World Cup, when Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa picked the tickets.
Nigeria and Cameroon were able to make it beyond the group stage, while South Africa lost out in the group stage.
FIFA confirmed that Africa will have four slot and two counties from the continent will also have opportunity to partake in the play-off, before joining the four countries that qualify, to make it six at the next World Cup.
‘Following the amazing success of the 2019 edition, the decision was taken last year to expand the FIFA Women’s World Cup to 32 teams, and thus continue to foster the growth of women’s football. FIFA has since worked closely with the Confederations to formulate a proposal for the allocation of slots and the Bureau of the FIFA Council has today confirmed the following berths for the 2023 edition:
Direct slot allocation (29 of the 32 participation slots)
6 direct slots for the AFC;
4 direct slots for CAF;
4 direct slots for Concacaf;
3 direct slots for CONMEBOL;
1 direct slot for the OFC; and
11 direct slots for UEFA.
The two host countries, Australia and New Zealand, will automatically qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, and their slots have been taken directly from the quotas allocated to their Confederations, the AFC and the OFC respectively.
The three remaining slots will be decided through a ten-team play-off tournament with the following play-off slots allocation:
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.
Play-off tournament format
‘Four teams will be seeded in the tournament based on the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking prior to the play-off draw, with a maximum of one seeded team per confederation,’ the statements reads.
