The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by women's national teams and organised by FIFA. The tournament, which took place from 20 July to 20 August 2023, was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. It was the first FIFA Women's World Cup with more than one host nation, as well as the first World Cup to be held across multiple confederations, as Australia is a member of the Asian Football Confederation, while New Zealand is a member of the Oceania Football Confederation. It was also the first Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.
This tournament was the first to feature an expanded format of 32 teams, from the previous 24. The opening match was won by co-host New Zealand, beating Norway at Eden Park in Auckland on 20 July 2023 and achieving their first Women's World Cup victory.
Spain was crowned champions after defeating reigning European champions England 1–0 in the final. It was the first time a European nation had won the Women's World Cup since 2007, although their victory was marred by the Rubiales affair. Spain became the second nation to win both the women's and men's World Cup since Germany in the 2003 edition. In addition, they became the first nation to concurrently hold the FIFA women's U-17, U-20, and senior World Cups. Sweden would claim their fourth third place finish at the Women's World Cup while co-host Australia achieved their best placing yet, finishing fourth. Japanese player Hinata Miyazawa won the Golden Boot scoring five goals throughout the tournament. Spanish player Aitana Bonmatí was voted the tournament's best player, winning the Golden Ball, whilst Bonmatí's teammate Salma Paralluelo was awarded the Young Player Award. England goalkeeper Mary Earps won the Golden Glove, awarded to the best-performing goalkeeper of the tournament.
Overview The FIFA Women's World Cup is a professional association football (soccer) tournament contested by senior women's national football teams, organised by FIFA. The tournament, held every four years and one year after the men's World Cup, was first played in 1991 in China, and was expanded to 32 teams beginning with the 2023 edition. The tournament is contested with eight round-robin groups followed by a knockout round for 16 teams. The defending champions were the United States, who defeated the Netherlands 2–0 in the 2019 final. The event took place over a period of a month, from 20 July to 20 August, in Australia and New Zealand. This Women's World Cup was the first co-hosted tournament, and also the first senior World Cup to be held across multiple confederations. In addition, it was the first senior tournament to be held in Oceania, the first Women's World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere, and the third to be held in the Asia-Pacific region, after 1991 and 2007.
Schedule The match schedule was announced by FIFA on 1 December 2021, with kick-off times confirmed on 24 October 2022, two days after the final draw.
The opening match of the tournament, between co-host New Zealand and Norway, was played on 20 July 2023 at Eden Park. The inaugural match played in Australia, was between Australia playing against the Republic of Ireland on the same day at Stadium Australia, after a venue change due to strong ticketing demand.
Prize money The total prize pool was USD 110 million, $80 million greater than the prize pool of the previous tournament.
At previous tournaments, FIFA paid total prize money to the national associations, but for the 2023 Women's World Cup it was set to award prize payments directly to players as well as the associations. This came as a result of reports in the women's game that a number of national associations were withholding competition prize money from players and/or not paying them at all. In March 2023, global player union FIFPRO sent a letter signed by players from around the world to FIFA, challenging FIFA to make prize money in the men's and women's tournaments equal and to ensure at least 30% of prize money in the women's tournament made it to the players. While FIFA did not match the prize money of the men's tournament, it did significantly increase it, with more than half set to be paid to players directly.
Just before the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that the player payments would still be paid to the associations, and that FIFA planned to audit the associations to make sure the money got to the players. Football administrator Lise Klaveness expressed concern over what she felt sounded like reneging on the promise, both for the players and for FIFA's credibility. During the tournament, Infantino admitted that FIFA had simply made recommendations to associations on how much to pay players, and they could not reasonably check.
Place Teams Amount (in U.S. dollars) Per association Per player Total Champions1 $4,290,000 $270,000 $10,500,000 Runners-up1 $3,015,000 $195,000 $7,500,000 Third place1 $2,610,000 $180,000 $6,750,000 Fourth place1 $2,455,000 $165,000 $6,250,000 5th–8th place (quarter-finals)4 $2,180,000 $90,000 $17,000,000 9th–16th place (round of 16)8 $1,870,000 $60,000 $26,000,000 17th–32nd place (group stage)16 $1,560,000 $30,000 $36,000,000 Total32$110,000,000
Host selection
Bidding began for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup on 19 February 2019. Member associations interested in hosting the tournament had to submit a declaration of interest by 15 March, and provide the completed bidding registration by 16 April. However, FIFA revised the bidding timeline as the tournament expanded to 32 teams on 31 July. Other member associations interested in hosting the tournament then had until 16 August to submit a declaration of interest, while the completed bidding registration of new member associations and re-confirmation of prior bidders was due by 2 September.
Nine countries initially indicated interest in hosting the events: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, South Korea (with interest in a joint bid with North Korea), New Zealand and South Africa. Belgium expressed interest in hosting the tournament following the new deadline but later dropped out, as did Bolivia, in September 2019. Australia and New Zealand later announced they would merge their bids in a joint submission. Brazil, Colombia, and Japan joined them in submitting their bid books to FIFA by 13 December. However, both Brazil and Japan later withdrew their bids in June 2020 before the final voting.
On 25 June 2020, Australia and New Zealand won the bid to host the Women's World Cup. The decision came after a vote by the FIFA Council, with the winning bid earning 22 votes, while Colombia earned 13. Neither country had previously hosted a senior FIFA tournament. This was the first Women's World Cup to be hosted in multiple countries, and only the second World Cup tournament to do so, following the 2002 FIFA World Cup, held in Japan and South Korea. It was also the first FIFA Women's World Cup to be held in the Southern Hemisphere, the first senior FIFA tournament to be held in Oceania, and the first FIFA tournament to be hosted across multiple confederations (with Australia in the AFC and New Zealand in the OFC). Australia became the second association from the AFC to host the Women's World Cup, after China in both 1991 and 2007.
+2023 FIFA WWC biddingBidding nation(s)VotesRound 1Australia & New Zealand22Colombia13Recused2 Total votes35Majority required18
Format In July 2019, Infantino proposed an expansion of the Women's World Cup from 24 to 32 teams, starting with the 2023 edition, and doubling the tournament's prize money. The proposal came following the success of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup and the prior edition of the tournament in 2015, which after increasing from 16 to 24 teams set an attendance record for all FIFA competitions besides the men's FIFA World Cup. Expanding the tournament to allow eight additional participating teams gave more member associations a greater opportunity to qualify for the final tournament. This fostered the growing reach and professionalisation of the women's game.
On 31 July, the FIFA Council unanimously decided to expand the tournament to 32 teams, featuring eight groups of four.
The tournament opened with a group stage consisting of eight groups of four teams, with the top two teams progressing from each group to a knockout tournament featuring 16 teams. The number of games played overall increased from 52 to 64. The tournament replicated the format of the men's FIFA World Cup used between 1998 and 2022. For the first time since the 2002 FIFA World Cup, both qualified teams from each group were kept on the same side of the draw in the knockout stage, meaning they would meet again in the semi-final instead of the final if they advanced that far. This was to minimize travel between Australia and New Zealand and to ensure both host nations remained in their own country up to the semi-finals should they qualify.
Venues
Australia and New Zealand proposed 13 possible venues across 12 host cities for the tournament in the bid book submitted to FIFA, suggesting a minimum of 10 stadiums be used—5 in each country. The original proposal of the joint bid would have seen the venues divided into three main travel hubs: South Hub, containing Perth, Adelaide, Launceston and Melbourne; East Hub, containing Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and Launceston; and New Zealand Hub, containing Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. The Sydney Football Stadium was the only new stadium, undergoing a major renovation during the bid period, replacing the old football stadium on the same site and opening on 28 August 2022.
The bid evaluation was released on 10 June 2020 by FIFA, which noted that the majority of the stadiums listed in the bid meet FIFA's hosting requirements with capacity, aside from Adelaide and Auckland, which did not meet the minimum requirements capacity wise for stages of the competition proposed for. Most stadiums featured in the bid were planned to have minor renovations with new floodlighting, pitch renovations, in addition to gender-neutral changing rooms in time for the tournament.
On 31 March 2021, FIFA announced the final host city and venue selections. Five cities and six stadiums were used in Australia, along with four cities and stadiums in New Zealand. From the proposed venues, Newcastle and Launceston were not selected in Australia and Christchurch was omitted in New Zealand. Eden Park in Auckland hosted the opening game, with Stadium Australia in Sydney hosting the final match. As a part of the branding, all cities used native names (Indigenous in Australia and Māori in New Zealand) alongside their English names in an effort to "reconcile and respect the original owners of the land". They were: Tarntanya (Adelaide), Meanjin (written as Meaanjin; Brisbane), Naarm (Melbourne), Boorloo (Perth), Gadigal (Eastern Sydney; for Sydney Football Stadium), Wangal (Western Sydney; for Stadium Australia), Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), Ōtepoti (Dunedin), Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), and Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington).
Eden Park, Auckland hosted New Zealand's opening match; Stadium Australia, Sydney hosted Australia's opening match (both group stages). Lang Park, Brisbane, hosted the third-place match on 19 August; Stadium Australia hosted the final which was held on 20 August.
The Women's World Cup forced many domestic Australian sporting teams to move matches from grounds under the FIFA lockout, particularly those in the National Rugby League.