The 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the 12th edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the national teams that represent the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be hosted by England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as they are the sole bidders. This will be the second tournament to feature 48 national teams.
The tournament will be the first time England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales host the FIFA Women's World Cup, as well as the fourth FIFA Women's World Cup in Europe after Sweden in 1995, Germany in 2011, and France in 2019. England will also become the eighth country to host both the men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the former in 1966. It is also the first FIFA tournament to be held in Northern Ireland and Wales, and the second to be held in Scotland since 1989.
Host selection
The host nation for the 2031 Women's World Cup is scheduled to be officially decided by the tenth extraordinary FIFA Congress on 23 November 2026 in Zurich, two years after the host selection for the 2027 edition. On 5 March 2025 the FIFA Council approved the bid regulations which restricted bids to UEFA and CAF members. The key dates include: 31 March 2025: Member associations to submit their expressions of interest to host the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cup 30 April 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 28 November 2025: Member associations to submit their bids to FIFA February 2026: FIFA to organise on-site inspection visits to bidding countries March 2026: Publication of FIFA's bid evaluation report 2nd quarter: Designation of bids by the FIFA Council 23 November 2026: Appointment of the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cup host(s) by the tenth extraordinary FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland.
Although the host nation has not been confirmed, the submitted sole bid was unveiled. On 3 April 2025, FIFA announced that the United Kingdom home nations bid was the only valid bid. Due to UEFA's boycott of FIFA competitions due to the FIFA Forward Enterprise proposal, it is unknown if an alternative host, which would have to be from CAF, will be selected if the boycott is maintained by 23 November 2026.
Format The 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup will be contested by 48 teams as part of an expansion starting with the 2031 edition.
Venues In its hosting requirements document, FIFA stipulated that the 32-team competition will have a minimum of eight stadiums—of which at least five were existing venues. The stadiums would have minimum seating capacities of 20,000 for most matches, 40,000 for semifinal matches, and 65,000 for the opening match and final. However, additional changes will be made to accommodate the expansion to 48. Manchester United have expressed interest in hosting this final in their yet-to-be built 100,000 seater stadium, though reports have indicated the FA prefers Wembley Stadium. Other interested cities currently include Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sunderland, and Wrexham.
No venue in Northern Ireland currently meets the minimum capacity requirement, with the largest existing stadium, Windsor Park, having only 18,500 capacity. Plans for the redevelopment of Casement Park into a 34,500 capacity venue for the UEFA Euro 2028 were stalled and resulted in Northern Ireland withdrawing from hosting the tournament.
On 28 November 2025, the formal bid submission proposed 22 venues in 16 cities, including some planned and provisional stadiums. It's not known yet how many venues will be used for the tournament. The bid submission also highlights that 63 million people live within two hours of any proposed venue.
+List of host cities and stadiumsCountry City Stadium Capacity Image London Wembley Stadium 90,000 Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 62,850 Emirates Stadium 60,704 Stamford Bridge 40,022 Selhurst Park 25,486(to be renovated) Manchester Old Trafford 74,197 Etihad Stadium 61,470(after renovation) Birmingham New Birmingham City Stadium 62,000 Villa Park 50,000(after renovation) Leeds Elland Road 53,000(after renovation) Liverpool Hill Dickinson Stadium 52,769 Newcastle St James' Park 52,305 Sunderland Stadium of Light 49,000 Brighton & Hove Falmer Stadium 31,876 Nottingham City Ground 30,404(to be renovated) Bristol Ashton Gate 26,462 Belfast Windsor Park 18,500(to be renovated) Glasgow Hampden Park 51,866 Edinburgh Easter Road 20,421 Cardiff Millennium Stadium 73,931 Cardiff City Stadium 33,280 Wrexham Racecourse Ground 15,500(to be renovated)
Teams Qualification FIFA's confederations organise their own qualifying competitions, with the exception of CAF and CONCACAF which qualify teams through continental championships. The hosts England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive automatic qualification for the tournament, leaving most of the remaining FIFA member associations eligible to enter qualification if they chose to do so. Wales and Northern Ireland will participate for the first time ever, but may still qualify for 2027 or 2031.
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.
AFC (Asia): TBD CAF (Africa): TBD CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): TBD CONMEBOL (South America): TBD OFC (Oceania): TBD UEFA (Europe): TBD (including co-hosts England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) Inter-confederation play-off tournament: TBD
Qualified teams TeamQualified asQualification dateAppearancein finalsLastappearanceConsecutivestreakPrevious best performance Co-hosts 7th/8th/9th 2023/2027/2031 1/2/8 1st/2nd/3rd None/2027/2031 1/2/3 Debut 2nd/3rd/4th 2019/2027/2031 1/2/3 1st/2nd/3rd None/2027/2031 1/2/3 Debut
Marketing
Broadcasting
UEFA boycott On 30 July 2026, following FIFA's announcement of FIFA Forward Enterprise (a proposal to sell stakes in FIFA's tournament operations, including for the FIFA Women's World Cup, to private investors), all 55 UEFA member associations agreed on an indefinite boycott of FIFA competitions until the proposal was shelved and assurances were made that such a proposal would not be tabulated again. All four host nations in the 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup bid are part of the boycott. A day later on 31 July, the proposal was scrapped, although UEFA stated that, regardless, it no longer trusts FIFA's governance. UEFA provisionally suspended its boycott on August 26 following written assurances that a similar proposal would not be brought up in the future, though the UEFA Executive Committee will monitor events and reinstate the boycott if deemed necessary.
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