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2031 FIFA Women's World Cup

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2031 FIFA Women's World Cup
Copa Mundial Femenina de Fútbol de 2031
Tournament details
Host countryUnited States
Teams48 (from 6 confederations)
← 2027
2035 →

The 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the 11th edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's soccer championship contested by the national teams that represent the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be the first to involve 48 national teams, including that of the host nation.

The main hosts will be the United States with other CONCACAF members possibly hosting games as well, which will be the third FIFA Women's World Cup the United States will host after 1999 and 2003. The latter host, which was originally China, was moved because of the SARS outbreak there. The United States already hosted the men's 1994 FIFA World Cup and the men's 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico and Canada, as well as the Copa América Centenario in 2016, the 2024 Copa América, and every CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Host selection

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Main article: 2031 and 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup bids

The host nation for the 2031 Women's World Cup is scheduled to be decided by the 76th FIFA Congress in 2026, two years after the host selection for the 2027 edition.[1][2] On March 5, 2025, the FIFA Council approved the bid regulations which restricted bids to CONCACAF and CAF members.[3] The key dates include:[4]

  • March 31, 2025: Member associations to submit their expressions of interest to host the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cup
  • May 5, 2025: Member associations to confirm their interest in bidding to host the Women's World Cup by submitting the bidding agreement
  • Q2 2025: Bid workshop and observer programme to take place
  • Q4 2025: Member associations to submit their bids to FIFA
  • February 2026: FIFA to organise on-site inspection visits to bidding countries
  • May 2026: Publication of FIFA's bid evaluation report
  • 2nd quarter: Designation of bids by the FIFA Council
  • Q2 2026: Appointment of the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cup host(s) by the FIFA Congress in TBD.

On April 3, 2025, FIFA announced that the United States bid was the only valid bid with other CONCACAF nations eligible to host games.[5] The United States bid had been announced alongside Mexico and had explored a limited number of matches in Costa Rica and Jamaica.[6]

Format

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See also: 2026 FIFA World Cup § Format and expansion

The expansion of Women's World Cup from 32 to 48 teams comes with the success of 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, where the number of participants was increased from 24 to 32 teams.[7] The rapid growth of women's soccer in the 2020s led to the potential expansion following suit with the men's World Cup.[8] During the March 5, 2025, FIFA Council meeting, FIFA president Gianni Infantino stated that the tournament would possibly be expanded to 48 teams depending on decisions made in the lead-up to the host selection.[citation needed] On April 3, 2025, the tournament was expanded to 48 teams starting from the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup.[7]

This will be the first FIFA Women's World Cup to include 48 teams, an increase from 32 teams, mirroring the expansion of men's world cup since 2026. The teams will be split in 12 groups of 4 teams, with the top two of each group and the eight best third-placed teams progressing to a new round of 32. The total number of games played will increase from 64 to 104, and the number of games played by teams reaching the final four will increase from seven to eight. The format will be the same as the one used in the FIFA World Cup since 2026.

Venues

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List of candidate host cities
City Stadium Capacity
United States Pasadena, California Rose Bowl 89,702
Mexico Mexico City Estadio Azteca 87,523
United States Denver, Colorado Empower Field at Mile High 76,125
United States Charlotte, North Carolina Bank of America Stadium 74,867
United States Baltimore, Maryland M&T Bank Stadium 70,745
United States Tampa, Florida Raymond James Stadium 69,218
United States Seattle, Washington Lumen Field 68,740
United States San Antonio, Texas Alamodome 64,000
United States Indianapolis, Indiana Lucas Oil Stadium 63,000
Canada Montreal Olympic Stadium 61,004
United States Nashville, Tennessee New Nissan Stadium 60,000
Mexico Guadalajara Estadio Akron 49,813
Costa Rica San José Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica 35,062
Jamaica Kingston National Stadium 35,000
Panama Panama City Estadio Rommel Fernández 32,000
United States Portland, Oregon Providence Park 25,218

Teams

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Qualification

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FIFA's confederations organise their own qualifying competitions, with the exception of CAF and CONCACAF which qualify teams through continental championships. The hosts United States qualified automatically for the tournament, leaving most of the remaining FIFA member associations eligible to enter qualification if they chose to do so.

The allocation of slots below was announced by the FIFA Council in April 2025. The slot for the host nation will be taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederation.

A twelve-team play-off tournament will decide the final three spots at the Women's World Cup. The play-off slot allocation is as follows:

  • AFC (Asia): 2 slots
  • CAF (Africa): 2 slots
  • CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 3 slots*
  • CONMEBOL (South America): 2 slots
  • OFC (Oceania): 1 slot
  • UEFA (Europe): 2 slot

*1 additional play-off place is allocated to the confederation hosting the final tournament.

Qualified teams

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Team Qualified as Qualification date Appearance
in finals 		Last
appearance 		Consecutive
streak 		Previous best performance
 United States Hosts April 3, 2025 10th/11th 2023/2027 10/11 Champions (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019)

Marketing

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Broadcasting

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References

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  1. ^ "FIFA Council endorsed international match calendar principles and competitions". FIFA+. FIFA. December 16, 2022. Retrieved February 5, 2023.
  2. ^ "FIFA Council highlights record breaking revenue in football". FIFA. February 14, 2023. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
  3. ^ "FIFA Council approves unprecedented prize money pot for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ and takes key decisions on women's competitions". inside.fifa.com.
  4. ^ "FIFA Women's World Cup 2031™ and FIFA Women's World Cup 2035™ Overview of the Bidding Processes" (PDF). FIFA. March 5, 2025. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
  5. ^ Kearns, Sean (April 3, 2025). "UK set to host 2035 Women's World Cup as only 'valid' bid". BBC Sport. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
  6. ^ Slater, Matt; Rampling, Ali (April 3, 2025). "FIFA confirms U.S.-Mexico, UK as sole bidders for 2031, 2035 Women's World Cups". The Athletic. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
  7. ^ a b Keogh, Emily (April 3, 2025). "Infantino: USA set to host 2031 Women's World Cup, UK gets 2035". ESPN. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
  8. ^ Sheldon, Dan; Linehan, Meg (December 4, 2024). "FIFA exploring Women's World Cup 48-team expansion". The Athletic. Retrieved April 3, 2025.
  9. ^ "FIFA and Netflix sign historic broadcast deal for 2027 and 2031 editions of FIFA Women's World Cup". FIFA. December 20, 2024. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
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