14 Arsenal players have already featured in the early stages of qualification for the 2027 Women’s World Cup as confederations around the world begin their routes to Brazil.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 will take place next year in Brazil, and qualification campaigns began across Europe last week. Other confederations are also under way, and the picture is beginning to take shape across the global qualifying process.
CAF have four direct qualification places.
The qualifying competition is the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, which has just been postponed until the summer by the Confederation of African Football. The tournament had been little more than two weeks away from starting, but Morocco is facing stadium availability problems and cannot host it as planned.
CAF has also been criticised for its handling of the competition. 12 teams had originally qualified for the tournament before a decision was taken to expand the field to 16 once qualification had finished. The last minute postponement has added further disruption, and players and staff have been left dealing with the consequences.
OFC have one direct slot.
The semi finals of the qualifying tournament will take place in April.
Semi finals (Hamilton, New Zealand)
12.4 12.00 Papua New Guinea v American Samoa
12.4 16.00 New Zealand v Fiji
Final (Auckland, New Zealand)
15.4 19.00 NZL/FIJ v PNG/ASA
AFC have six direct places available.
The Asian Cup acts as the Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament and is currently in progress.
Kyra Cooney-Cross, Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord are involved with Australia, who have reached the quarter finals after finishing second in their group behind South Korea. They will face North Korea in the quarter finals, and victory would secure qualification for the World Cup.
CONCACAF have four direct qualification places.
The process began in November, with the CONCACAF Women’s Championship finals set to determine the four teams who will qualify directly.
The United States and Canada have already secured their places in the finals. Emily Fox of the United States and Olivia Smith of Canada have not yet begun their campaigns.
CONMEBOL have three direct places available.
Brazil’s slot is already allocated as host nation and therefore taken from the confederation’s quota. Nine teams are competing in a round robin competition to determine the remaining places, with qualification scheduled to conclude on June 26.
UEFA have 11 direct qualification places.
The qualifying campaign has just begun, with the first two of six matchdays already completed. Four teams will qualify automatically in the first phase, the four group winners from the League A groups. Teams in League B and League C can only reach the tournament through the play offs for the remaining seven places.
England, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Norway and Austria are competing in League A, while Czechia are in League B.
14 Arsenal players were involved in this round of qualifiers.
Sweden are level with Denmark at the top of their group, England are level with Spain at the top of theirs, and Germany and France lead the other groups.
England will contest the direct qualification place with Spain, hoping to avoid the uncertain play off route, which would involve four additional matches and fixtures against teams from League C and then League B on the path to Brazil.
There are 29 direct places available for the tournament, leaving three remaining spots to be decided through the intercontinental play offs. 10 teams from the six confederations will compete for those places.
In phase one, teams from AFC (two), CAF (two), OFC (one) and CONMEBOL (one) will enter the competition. Two teams will progress to phase two, where they will be joined by CONCACAF (two), CONMEBOL (one) and UEFA (one). Three pathways will then be created to determine the final three teams to qualify for the tournament.
The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 will be held from June 24 to July 25.