The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has allocated four slots to the African continent in the expanded 32 team Women’s World Cup tournament scheduled for 2023 in Australia and Newzeland.
The decision was taken last year to increase the participating teams from 24 to 32 in a bid to grow and develop women’s football worldwide and confirmed in a Bureau of the FIFA Council held on Thursday.
“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,” read the statement on the FIFA website.”
The four teams that will reach the semi-final of the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations tournament will directly progress to the Women’s World Cup.
However, these could rise to six slots if the two teams that will represent the African continent in the 10-team play-off tournament which will be hosted by Australia and New zealand.
The play-off tournament will be used as a test event for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Championship, and both hosts will participate in the friendly matches against the teams that will be pitted in Group 1 and Group 2.
Africa was represented by three countries (Cameroon, South Africa, and Nigeria) in the last edition of the Women’s World Cup that was held in France.
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
• 11 direct slots for UEFA.
Play-off tournament slot allocation (3 teams to qualify)
• 2 play-off slots for the AFC
• 2 play-off slots for CAF (Africa)
• 2 play-off slots for Concacaf
• 2 play-off slots for CONMEBOL
• 1 play-off slot for the OFC
• 1 play-off slot for UEFA
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