FIFA Women's World Cup qualification

FIFA Women's World Cup qualification is the process a national women's association football team goes through to qualify for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Qualifying tournaments are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, Europe), and are organised by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides beforehand the number of berths awarded to each of the continental zones, based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams. The hosts of the World Cup receive an automatic berth in the finals. Since the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, the number of finalists increased from 16 to 24.^[1]

Qualification berths by continent

The table below lists the numbers of berths allocated by FIFA for each continent in each tournament.

Places in the intercontinental play-offs are indicated by fractional (".5") representations. Intercontinental play-offs are played as two home-and-away matches. The team that scores a greater aggregate number of goals qualifies for the World Cup. Away goals rule applies. If these rules fail to determine the winner, extra time and penalty shootouts are used.

A ⁺ or ⁻ respectively indicates the winners or losers of the intercontinental play-offs. "+H" denotes an additional spot for hosts.

Places allocated for continents

Continental zone	1991 1	1995	1999	2003 2	2007	2011	2015	2019
Africa	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	3
Asia	3	2	3	2.5++ H	2.5++H	3	5	5
Oceania	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Europe	5	4+H	6	5	5	4.5−+H	8	8+H
North and Central America and Caribbean	1	2	1.5++H	2.5−	2.5−	2.5+	3.5−+H	3.5
South America	1	1	1.5−	2	2	2	2.5+	2.5
Total	12	12	16	16	16	16	24	24

• ¹ In 1991, China PR hosted the tournament, but the location was determined after Asian qualifying had been completed.
• ² Originally to be held in China PR, the tournament was moved to the United States. China retained its automatic qualifying status as original host.

Qualification competition entrants over time

Entrants in continental qualifying tournaments^[2][3]

Continental zone	1991 (12)	1995 (12)	1999 (16)	2003 (16)	2007 (16)	2011 (16)	2015 (24)	2019 (24)
Africa	8	8	15	22	35	24	26	24
Asia	9	4	11	18	17	17	20	24
Oceania	3	3	6	10	10	8	4	11
Europe	18	30	161	161	251	41	46	46
North and Central America and Caribbean	8	5	112	223	32	26	28	28
South America	3	5	10	10	10	10	10	10
Total	49	55	69	98	129	126	134	143
Teams played	45	52	66	84	109	119	130	104
Matches played	111	135	152	195	263	355	406	198
Goals scored	445	655	803	867	1,032	1,436	1,686	761

• ¹ Only teams in European Class A could qualify for the Women's World Cup finals. Other sides could at best be promoted to Class A for subsequent tournament.
• ² A second Guatemalan side also competed, but their matches are not included in the list.
• ³ The United States (eventual hosts of the finals) competed in the qualifying tournament.

First appearance in qualification by team

Listed are the first appearance in the qualifying stages by a national team.^[2] Teams that entered for the first time but withdrew before playing a match are written in italics.

World Cup	Europe	South America	North, Central America and Caribbean	Asia	Africa	Oceania	Total
1991	Belgium  Bulgaria  Czechoslovakia  Denmark  England  Finland  France  Germany  Hungary  Italy  Netherlands  Northern Ireland  Norway  Poland  Republic of Ireland  Spain  Sweden   Switzerland	Brazil  Chile  Venezuela	Canada  Costa Rica  Haiti  Jamaica  Mexico  Trinidad and Tobago  United States	China PR  Chinese Taipei  Hong Kong  Japan  North Korea  South Korea  Malaysia  Singapore  Thailand	Cameroon  Congo  Ghana  Guinea  Nigeria  Senegal  Zambia  Zimbabwe	Australia  New Zealand  Papua New Guinea	45
1995	Croatia  Czech Republic  Greece  Iceland  Latvia  Lithuania  Portugal  Romania  Russia  Scotland  Slovakia  Slovenia  Ukraine  Wales  FR Yugoslavia	Argentina  Bolivia  Ecuador	none	none	Angola  Sierra Leone  South Africa  Zambia	none	21
1999	none	Colombia  Paraguay  Peru  Uruguay	El Salvador  Guatemala  Guyana  Honduras  Puerto Rico	Guam  India  Kazakhstan  Philippines  Uzbekistan	DR Congo  Egypt  Kenya  Lesotho  Morocco  Mozambique  Namibia  Swaziland  Uganda	American Samoa  Fiji  Samoa	24
2003	Moldova	none	Bahamas  Belize  Dominica  Dominican Republic  Montserrat  Nicaragua  Panama  Saint Lucia  Suriname  U.S. Virgin Islands	Indonesia  Myanmar    Nepal  Vietnam	Botswana  Ivory Coast  Equatorial Guinea  Eritrea  Ethiopia  Gabon  Guinea-Bissau  Mali  São Tomé and Príncipe  Senegal  Tanzania  Zimbabwe	Cook Islands  Tahiti  Tonga  Vanuatu	20
2007	Austria  Belarus  Serbia and Montenegro	none	Antigua and Barbuda  Aruba  Barbados  Bermuda  British Virgin Islands  Cayman Islands  Grenada  Netherlands Antilles  Nicaragua  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Turks and Caicos Islands	Indonesia  Maldives	Algeria  Benin  Central African Republic  Congo  Djibouti  Kenya  Libya  Malawi  Namibia  Togo	New Caledonia  Solomon Islands  Tonga	27
2011	Armenia  Azerbaijan  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Estonia  Georgia  Israel  Macedonia  Malta  Serbia  Turkey	none	Anguilla  Belize  Cuba	Bangladesh  Iran  Jordan  Kyrgyzstan  Palestine	Botswana  Tunisia	Tahiti  Vanuatu	21
2015	Albania  Faroe Islands  Luxembourg  Montenegro	none	none	Bahrain  Bangladesh  Kuwait  Lebanon	Burkina Faso  Comoros  Rwanda  South Sudan	none	12
2019	Andorra  Kosovo	none	none	Iraq  Syria  Tajikistan  United Arab Emirates	Gambia  Libya	none

See also

• National team appearances in the FIFA Women's World Cup
• FIFA World Cup qualification

References

External links