Women's World Cup 2027

Lots of Charlton players are with countries that have a respectable chance of qualifying so perhaps it's worth giving this its own thread rather than distracting from the main women's team thread.

Qualifying is complicated as most federations try to set things up to avoid too many 20-0 games, recognising that some countries are at very early stages of developing the women's game. So. Deep breath, here we go.

The 32 countries are 11 UEFA, 6 Asia, 4 Africa, 4 N. America, 3 S. America, 1 Oceania and 3 playoff slots. The hosts are Brazil who get the usual automatic slot leaving only 2 for the rest of CONMEBOL. The relative numbers are quite different to the men's game, reflecting different historical strengths.

Asia is qualifying via the Asian championships in Australia at present. The semi-finalists of this competition all qualify, the losing quarter-finalists enter playoffs where the winners qualify and the losers go into the intercontinental playoffs.

UEFA is using the Nations League which runs over the last international window and the next two. The four winners of Group A groups qualify, then there are two rounds of play-offs for which 32 of the remaining countries qualify by group position. The 8 play-off winners have their rankings compared and the lowest ranked goes to the intercontinental play-off while the other 7 qualify. England and Ireland are in group A and have a chance of qualifying without the playoffs.

African qualification will be determined at the 2026 Cup Of Nations. The 4 semi-finalists will qualify, the losing quarter-finalists play off with the playoff winners going into the intercontinental playoffs. The torment is currently due to be in Morocco 25 July to 16 August having been postponed due to Morocco sulking about the men's tournament result. Now they've been bribed to go ahead, erm, justly awarded the men's trophy on appeal, the women's tournament may happen. Senegal's position on whether it's worth turning up is unknown.

CONCACAF qualification is via the continental championship in November. This is straight knockout with 8 teams chasing 4 slots. Again, losing quarter-finalists get a playoff for a place in the intercontinental playoffs. The finalists and one of the losing semi-finalists also get places in the next Olympics, so no pressure...

CONMEBOL join UEFA in having a stand-alone qualifying tournament. Being CONMEBOL, it's a 9-team all play all league, with the top 2 qualifying and third and fourth into the playoffs. Brazil aren't involved because there wouldn't be any point. It's already under way, the next games in the April window. The crucial final 2 rounds of matches are on 5 and 9 June.

Oceania also has its own tournament. There was a league phase crammed into a single window 27 Feb, 2 March and 5 March, then the final round is in April. The winner qualifies and the losing finalist goes to the intercontinental playoffs.

The intercontinental playoffs start in November & December, then the final qualifiers are 3 ties in February 2027 to determine the 3 who go through. The UEFA representative gets a bye to this final stage. The rest of it is kind of complicated - if you're really interested, make a strong cup of coffee and head over to the Wikipedia page.

Qualifiers to date are the hosts and 4 of the 6 direct AFC slots:

1 Brazil
2 Australia
3 China
4 South Korea
5 Japan