Women’s football is witnessing a tremendous growth in the recent years. The focus, support and coverage is increasing at a steady pace. Everyone involved with the women’s football knows that the potential is really high and still a long way to go.

FIFA has recognised this and in the process of giving the big stage to maximum possible teams, the 2023 edition will have a total of 32 teams. This is going to be the 9th edition of Women’s World Cup and it will be the first time 32 teams will be participating in it. The last edition which took place in 2019 saw a total of 24 teams. The teams are divided into 8 groups.

Each team has 23 players in the squad. Total of 736 players will be all pumped up to showcase their skills , power and resilience to go out in the pitch and win games. While for some teams, the going will be tough from the first game itself , for others it will get difficult towards the knockout stages.

This football extravaganza will be kicking off on the 20th of July and the finals will be played on the 20th of Aug. The first game of the tournament is scheduled to kick off at the Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand. Norway will start the proceedings in search of their second World Cup when they take on the host national team of New Zealand in Group A. Norway are one of the favorites to proceed well ahead into the knockout stages. In the second match of the day, the other host nation Australia will play against the debutants, Republic of Ireland in Group B. Australia has a strong team and along with the fans support they are a formidable team. However, the team from Ireland has lot of character in them. There is a strong belief among the team, players, support staff , fans who have travelled to Australia and those cheering for the teams from Ireland. Group B. Australia, Canada, Nigeria and Ireland are the teams in Group B and it is a really tough group. Every point earned will be a step closer of the knock out stages. The teams in each group will play against each other once with the final game of the group happening at the same time for all the 4 teams in the respective group. This is to ensure there is a fair way of finding out the group winners as well as runners up and nullify the chances of foul play. You can read more about why and from when the final group stage games were played at the same time here.

64 matches will take place from 20th July to 20th Aug. The matches will be played in 9 cities (5 in Australia – Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and 4 in New Zealand – Auckland, Otago, Hamilton, Wellington) and a total of 10 stadiums will be hosting the games, with Sydney having two stadiums. The finals is scheduled to take place at the Stadium Australia, the same venue where Australia will be playing Republic of Ireland team on the opening day.

In the last 8 editions, team USA have won 4 times, Germany have won twice and Norway, Japan have each lifted the trophy once. The 9th edition is definitely going to be a nail biting one. USA, Norway, Japan and another strong contender Sweden are in the same side of the pool and at some point might play against each other before reaching the finals. On the other pool, it will be Australia, Canada, France, Germany, England who will have to keep winning the knock out games against each other to move to the finals.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup has brought together fans, families, football associations and indeed lot of brands who now believe in the power of the women playing the beautiful game. The way in which each country is showcasing their support towards their respective teams is amazing. Brands have also realised that there is a huge opportunity in this area of sports which can easily extend the brand presence to families. Many brands have found innovative ways to integrate this into their branding messages. National teams as well as individual players have got good sponsorship opportunities , courtesy the mega carnival of football.

The records are already made by many individual women players and more will be made in this edition of FIFA Women’s World Cup, some of them includes playing in 6 or more World Cups, appearances, no. of goals, fastest goal, highest top 4 finish, etc.

Will USA be able to defend their title and lift their 5th World Cup ? Will there be a new champion this year ? Can Norway, Japan and Germany add one more to their tally ? England , the current Euro Champions, will be in the pursuit of their first World Cup. France, Canada, Sweden can give a good fight and cause upsets. The host nation , Australia will be hoping the cup stays at home. There are other nations as well , will be giving their all and you never know , one good hit and one goal might be enough to sail through to next rounds.

All the best to the teams, players and the host nations for a wonderful World Cup. Hope to witness some amazing team and individual battles, skills, goals, saves and lot of exciting football.