2027 FIFA Women's World Cup facts for kids

The 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup is a huge international football (soccer) tournament for women's national teams. It happens every four years, and this will be its tenth time! Teams from all over the world compete to win the championship.

For the second time, 32 teams will play in the tournament. This is because FIFA, the world's football governing body, decided to make the tournament bigger in 2019. The team from Spain are the current champions. They won their first title in 2023.

On May 17, 2024, FIFA announced that Brazil will host the 2027 tournament. This is a big deal because it's the first time a FIFA Women's World Cup will be held in South America. Brazil has also hosted the men's World Cup twice before, in 1950 and 2014. This makes Brazil one of only six countries to host both the men's and women's World Cups. It's also the first country to host eight different FIFA competitions.

How the Host Country Was Chosen

Choosing a host country for the FIFA Women's World Cup is a big process. FIFA officially started looking for hosts for the 2027 tournament on March 23, 2023.

Several countries showed interest in hosting the event. Here's how the process worked:

• Countries first said they were interested in hosting.
• Then, they had to confirm their interest by signing an agreement.
• FIFA held workshops and observed the 2023 Women's World Cup to help countries prepare their bids.
• Finally, countries submitted their detailed plans to FIFA.

Four groups of countries initially expressed interest in hosting the 2027 World Cup:

•  Belgium,  Germany, and  Netherlands (a joint bid)
•  Brazil
•  Mexico and  United States (a joint bid, later withdrawn)
•  South Africa (later withdrawn)

On November 24, 2023, South Africa decided to withdraw their bid. They chose to focus on trying to host the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup instead.

The three remaining bids were officially submitted to FIFA on December 8, 2023.

Then, on April 29, 2024, Mexico and the United States also withdrew their joint bid. They decided to focus on the 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup too. This was partly because the 2026 FIFA World Cup (men's) will be held in North America just a year before.

The decision for the 2027 Women's World Cup host was made quite quickly. The winning country was chosen three years before the tournament. For the men's World Cup, host countries are usually chosen much earlier. For example, the hosts for the 2030 and 2034 men's tournaments were confirmed around the same time.

How the Bids Were Judged

Ten days before the final vote, FIFA released a report that looked at each bid. Brazil's bid was seen as having better stadiums. The European bid (from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands) promised a more compact tournament, meaning venues would be closer together. Overall, Brazil's bid scored higher in FIFA's evaluation.

Scores for Each Bid

2027 FIFA Women's World Cup evaluation report

Bidding nation(s)	Evaluation score
Brazil	4/5
Belgium,  Germany and  Netherlands	3.7/5

The Final Vote

The host country was chosen by a vote at the 74th FIFA Congress. This is a meeting where representatives from all FIFA member countries vote. Brazil won the vote by a clear majority.

74th FIFA Congress vote

Nation	Vote
	Round 1
Brazil	119
Belgium,  Germany and  Netherlands	78
Abstentions	10
Total votes	207
Majority required	104

Tournament Format

The 2027 Women's World Cup will follow the same format as the 2023 tournament. It starts with a group stage. There will be eight groups, with four teams in each group. The top two teams from each group will move on to the next stage.

After the group stage, it becomes a knockout tournament. This means if a team loses, they are out of the competition. This stage starts with 16 teams. In total, 64 games will be played throughout the tournament.

Teams and How They Qualify

How Teams Get In

Most teams have to play in special qualifying competitions to earn a spot in the World Cup. These are usually organized by their regional football groups, called confederations. For example, teams from Asia play in Asian qualifiers. Europe (UEFA) has its own separate qualifying competition.

The host country, Brazil, automatically gets a spot in the tournament. This means they don't have to play in the qualifiers. Other countries that are members of FIFA can try to qualify if they want to.

There's one exception: the Russian team is currently not allowed to play in any FIFA or UEFA competitions. This ban started on February 28, 2022, because of the invasion of Ukraine.

Here's how many spots each region gets in the World Cup:

• AFC (Asia): 6 spots
• CAF (Africa): 4 spots
• CONCACAF (North America, Central America, and the Caribbean): 4 spots
• CONMEBOL (South America): 3 spots (this includes host Brazil)
• OFC (Oceania): 1 spot
• UEFA (Europe): 11 spots

There will also be a special play-off tournament with ten teams. This tournament will decide the final three spots in the World Cup. Here's how many teams from each region will go to the play-off:

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

Teams That Have Qualified So Far

Only one team has officially qualified for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup so far:

Team	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Last appearance	Consecutive streak	Previous best performance
Brazil	Hosts	17 May 2024	10th	2023	10	Runners-up (2007)

See also

In Spanish: Copa Mundial Femenina de Fútbol de 2027 para niños