The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process decided all 24 teams which played in the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...
, with the hosts
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
qualifying automatically. It is the eighth
FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international
women's football world championship tournament. The tournament is the third to be hosted in Europe, after the
1995 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament featured 12 women's national teams from si ...
in
Sweden and the
2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Qualified teams
Qualification process
The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Council on 13–14 October 2016. The slots for each confederation are unchanged from
that of the previous tournament except the slot for the hosts is moved from CONCACAF (Canada) to UEFA (France).
Summary of qualification
Qualifying matches started on 3 April 2017, and ended on 1 December 2018.
Apart from the host France, 207 of the 210 remaining FIFA member associations could qualify through their own confederation's
qualifying process if they choose to enter. The exceptions were
Guatemala and
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
, whose football associations were suspended by FIFA, and
Equatorial Guinea, which were banned from the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.
Guam
Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...
,
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...
, and
Turks and Caicos Islands women's national football team, Turks and Caicos Islands were initially drawn into qualifying stages but they withdrew from their qualifying tournaments.
More than 30 countries, mostly in Asia and Africa, did not enter qualification, including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Egypt, which qualified teams for the
2018 FIFA World Cup.
:
:
:
* H: Hosts
Confederation qualification
AFC
As in the previous World Cup cycle, the
AFC Women's Asian Cup served as the World Cup qualifying tournament for
AFC members. The World Cup qualifying process was as follows:
*Qualifying stage: The
qualifying for the 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup was held from 3 to 12 April 2017. 24 teams entered the competition, with
Japan,
Australia, and
China automatically qualified for the final tournament by their position as the top three teams of the
2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup and thus not participating in the qualifying competition.
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
also automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts, but decided to also participate in the qualifying competition.
The 21 teams were drawn into one group of six teams and three groups of five teams. In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue, and the four group winners qualified for the final tournament. Since Jordan won their group, the runner-up of this group also qualified for the final tournament.
*Final tournament: Eight teams played in the
2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup, which was held from 6 to 20 April 2018 in
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
. They were drawn into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group qualified for the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...
as well as advance to the knockout stage, while the third-placed teams of each group advanced to the fifth-placed play-off, where the winner of the play-off qualified for the World Cup.
Group stage
Fifth place play-off
CAF
As in the previous World Cup cycle, the
Africa Women Cup of Nations
The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Conf ...
served as the World Cup qualifying tournament for
CAF members. The World Cup qualifying process was as follows:
*Qualifying stage: The
qualifying for the 2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations was held from 4 April to 9 June 2018. 24 teams entered the qualifying competition, with four teams (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa) earning byes to the second round, and the remaining 20 teams entering the first round. Qualification ties were played on a home-and-away two-legged basis. The seven winners of the second round qualified for the final tournament to join the hosts Ghana who qualified automatically.
*Final tournament: Eight teams played in the
2018 Africa Women Cup of Nations
Eighteen or 18 may refer to:
* 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19
* one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018
Film, television and entertainment
* ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...
, which was held from 17 November to 1 December 2018 in
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
. They were drawn into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage, where the winners of the semi-finals and the third place play-off qualified for the World Cup.
FIFA banned
Equatorial Guinea from qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, meaning they could not qualify for the World Cup regardless of their performance in the Africa Women Cup of Nations.
Knockout stage
CONCACAF
As in the previous World Cup cycle, the
CONCACAF Women's Championship
The CONCACAF W Championship (previously known as the CONCACAF Women's Championship, CONCACAF Women's Invitational Tournament, CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup and CONCACAF Women's World Cup Qualifying) is a football competition organized by the Confede ...
served as the World Cup qualifying tournament for
CONCACAF
The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch language, Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CON ...
members. The World Cup qualifying process was as follows:
*Qualifying stage:
Regional qualification tournaments were held in the
Central American Zone and the
Caribbean Zone. Two teams from the Central American Zone and three teams from the Caribbean Zone qualified for the final tournament to join the three teams from the
North American Zone,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, who qualified automatically.
*Final tournament: Eight teams played in the
2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship, which was held from 4 to 17 October 2018 in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. They were drawn into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage, where the winners of the semi-finals and the third place play-off qualified for the World Cup. The losers of the third-place play-off entered the
CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off.
Guadeloupe and
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in ...
entered Caribbean qualifying for the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship. However, as they are not FIFA members, they were ineligible to qualify for the World Cup.
Knockout stage
CONMEBOL
As in the previous World Cup cycle, the
Copa América Femenina
The Copa América Femenina (''Copa América Feminina'' in Portuguese; previously the ''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol Femenino'' (''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol Feminino''), usually shortened to ''Sudamericano Femenino'' (''Sul-Americano ...
served as the World Cup qualifying tournament for
CONMEBOL members. The World Cup qualifying process was as follows:
*Final tournament: Ten teams played in the
2018 Copa América Femenina
The 2018 Copa América Femenina was the eighth edition of the CONMEBOL Copa América Femenina (also referred to as the ''Copa América Femenina''), the quadrennial international football competition for women's national teams in South America a ...
, which was held between 4 and 22 April 2018 in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
. They were drawn into two groups of five teams. The top two teams of each group advanced to the round-robin final stage, where the top two teams qualified for the World Cup. The third-placed team entered the
CONCACAF–CONMEBOL play-off.
Final stage
OFC
As in the previous World Cup cycle, the
OFC Women's Nations Cup
The OFC Women's Nations Cup (previously known as the OFC Women's Championship) is a women's association football tournament for national teams who belong to the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC). It was held every three years from 1983 to 1989. ...
served as the World Cup qualifying tournament for
OFC members. The World Cup qualifying process was as follows:
*Qualifying stage: The four lowest-ranked teams based on previous regional performances of all women's national teams (American Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji) entered the qualifying stage, which was held from 24 to 30 August 2018 in
Fiji.
The winner qualified for the final tournament, joining the other seven teams which automatically qualified.
*Final tournament: Eight teams played in the final tournament, which was held between 18 November to 1 December 2018 in
New Caledonia.
They were drawn into two groups of four teams. The top two teams of each group advanced to the knockout stage (semi-finals and final) to decide the winner of the OFC Women's Nations Cup which qualified for the World Cup.
Knockout stage
UEFA
As in the previous World Cup cycle,
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
organised a tournament for its members designed only for World Cup qualifying. The World Cup qualifying process was as follows:
*Preliminary round: The 16 lowest-ranked teams of the 46 entrants according to their UEFA coefficient entered the preliminary round,
which was held from 3 to 11 April 2017. They were drawn into four groups of four teams, where each group played in single round-robin format at one of the pre-selected hosts. The four group winners and the best runner-up (not counting results against the fourth-placed team) advanced to the qualifying group stage.
*Qualifying group stage: 35 teams, including the 30 highest-ranked teams which received byes and the five qualifiers from the preliminary round, played in the qualifying group stage, which was held on dates in the FIFA Women's International Match Calendar from 11 September 2017 to 4 September 2018. They were drawn into seven groups of five teams, where each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The seven group winners qualified for the
2019 FIFA Women's World Cup
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was the eighth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international Women's association football championship contested by 24 women's national teams representing member associations of FIFA. I ...
, while the four best runners-up (not counting results against the fifth-placed team) advanced to the play-offs.
*Play-offs: The four teams played two knockout rounds of home-and-away two-legged matches, which were held from 1 to 9 October and 5 to 13 November 2018, where the winner of the play-off final round qualified for the World Cup.
Qualifying group stage
Ranking of second-placed teams (only results against first, third and fourth-placed teams taken into account)
Play-offs
CONMEBOL–CONCACAF play-off
The inter-confederation play-off was contested between CONCACAF's fourth-placed team Panama and CONMEBOL's third-placed team Argentina. The winners qualified for the World Cup.
Top goalscorers
References
External links
FIFA website
{{FIFA Women's World Cup
Qualification
Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to:
* Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
2017 in women's association football
2018 in women's association football