2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualification (UEFA)

**This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future events.**
It may contain tentative information; the content may change as the event approaches and more information becomes available.

To meet *Football Wiki'*s quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. Please help by improving the article.

The **European qualifying competition for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup** will be a women's football competition that determines the eleven UEFA teams which directly qualify for the final tournament in Australia and New Zealand, and the one team which advance to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Fifty-one of the 55 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition, with Cyprus making their World Cup qualifying debut.

## Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:

* **Group stage:** The 51 teams are drawn into nine groups of five or six teams, where each group is played in a home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners qualify directly for the final tournament, while the nine runners-up advance to the play-offs.
* **Play-offs:** The nine teams play two knockout rounds of single-leg matches, with the best three runners-up entering in the second round, to determine the two additional qualified teams and one inter-continental play-offs entrant from UEFA, based on combined records in both the group stage and play-offs.

### Tiebreakers

In the group stage, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13.01):

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
5. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
6. Goal difference in all group matches;
7. Goals scored in all group matches;
8. Away goals scored in all group matches;
9. Wins in all group matches;
10. Away wins in all group matches;
11. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
12. UEFA coefficient for the group stage draw.

To determine the best three runners-up, the group standings are used, not taking into account any matches against sixth-placed teams. If teams are tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied (Regulations Article 14.04):

1. Goal difference in all group matches;
2. Goals scored in all group matches;
3. Away goals scored in all group matches;
4. Wins in all group matches;
5. Away wins in all group matches;
6. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
7. UEFA coefficient for the group stage draw.

In the play-offs, the team that scores more goals in the second round match qualifies for the final tournament. If the score is level, extra time is played. If the score is remains level after extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out (Regulations Article 15.01).

To determine the two best play-off winners, the results of the group stage as used for runner-up determination above (eight matches), and the second round of the play-offs (one match) are added. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 14.05):

1. Points;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Away goals scored;
5. Wins;
6. Away wins;
7. Disciplinary points;
8. UEFA coefficient for the group stage draw.

## Schedule

The qualifying matches are played on dates that fall within the FIFA Women's International Match Calendar.

 **Play-offs** | 3–11 October 2022

Since the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 tournament has been moved from summer 2021 to summer 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, for the first time the series of matches for UEFA's World Cup qualification will be interrupted by a continental championship. In July 2022, in fact, sixteen UEFA national teams will participate in the Women's Euro tournament in England.

## Entrants

The teams were ranked according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following (Regulations Annex B.1.2.a):

* UEFA Women's Euro 2017 final tournament and qualifying competition (20%)
* 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup final tournament and qualifying competition (40%)
* UEFA Women's Euro 2022 qualifying competition (group stage only, excluding play-offs) (40%)

One entrant, Russia, was initially given a four-year ban from all major sporting events by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 9 December 2019 after Russian Anti-Doping Agency(RUSADA) was found non-compliant for handing over manipulated laboratory data to investigators. However, the Russian women's team could still enter qualification. The decision was appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled in WADA's favour but reduced the ban to two years. The CAS ruling also allowed the name "Russia" to be displayed on uniforms if the words "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team" have equal prominence. If Russia qualifies for the tournament, its female players will be able to use their country's name, flag or anthem at the Women's World Cup, unlike their male counterparts, as the ban will expire on 16 December 2022.

On 20 April 2021, it was announced 51 teams from the 55 eligible would enter the qualifying round.

## Group stage

### Draw

The draw for the group stage will be held on 30 April 2021, 13:30 CEST (UTC+2), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The 51 teams will be drawn into 9 groups:

* 3 groups (Groups A, B, C) of 5 teams, containing one team each from Pots 1–5;
* 6 groups (Groups D, E, F, G, H, I) of 6 teams, containing one team each from Pots 1–6.

Based on the UEFA Executive Committee decisions due to political conflicts, the following teams cannot be drawn into the same group:

* Armenia & Azerbaijan
* Kosovo & Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Kosovo & Serbia
* Kosovo & Russia
* Ukraine & Russia