Women’s World Cup 2023: 23 things you need to know

This is a big deal. This tournament has been hosted by France, Canada, Germany, China, and the United States this century, and now almost half of it is coming to little old New Zealand. New Zealand has been to five World Cups, including the inaugural event in China in 1991. The Football Ferns also qualified again in 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019.

The Ferns’ best results at a World Cup in 15 matches are a trio of draws – 2-2 with Mexico in 2011, 0-0 with Canada in 2015, and 2-2 with China the same year. They are yet to win a match and have never made it past the group stage.

The 2023 World Cup will be the first to feature 32 teams, like the men’s World Cup currently does. The decision to expand the tournament last year helped bring the Australian and New Zealand bids together.

A total of 13 venues were put forward by the trans-Tasman bid, but Fifa only requires a minimum of eight. Which ones will be involved and what matches they will host is still to be confirmed.

The five proposed New Zealand venues are Eden Park in Auckland, FMG Stadium Waikato in Hamilton, Sky Stadium in Wellington, Orangetheory Stadium in

Christchurch, and Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.

Eden Park has been put forward to host the opening match of the tournament and a quarterfinal and a semifinal are also likely in New Zealand, with the final set for ANZ Stadium in Sydney.

Other cities and towns in New Zealand have been put forward as team bases, which means the World Cup buzz won’t be limited to the main centres.

The United States are the perennial powerhouse of women’s football and have won the last two World Cups, beating the Netherlands in last year’s final in Lyon and Japan in the 2015 final in Vancouver.

They also won in 1991 and on home soil in 1999, while Norway won in 1995, Germany in 2003 and 2007, and Japan in 2011.

A total of 11 different countries have made it as far as the semifinals, with Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden joining the four winners. At last year’s World Cup in France, more than 1.13 million spectators attended the 52 matches. In New Zealand and Australia, they are hoping to attract 1.5 million fans to what is now 64 matches. Details on ticket pricing are still to be determined, but the trans-Tasman bid proposed having US$5 (NZ$8) tickets for children and no tickets more expensive than US$90 (NZ$140).

New Zealand first played a full women’s international in 1975, when a side led by Barbara Cox took on Hong Kong at the Asian Cup and won 2-0.

In 1991, New Zealand pipped Australia on goal difference at the Oceania Championship to qualify for the first World Cup, which was actually known as the 1st Fifa World Championship for Women’s Football for the M&M’s Cup, as Fifa was reluctant to share the World Cup brand.

New Zealand had regularly been a stronger side than Australia at that stage, but for a range of reasons, the team never got the support it needed to kick on in the 90s and early 2000s, and there were often long stretches between games.

A major turning point came in 2006, when Australia left the Oceania region, and New Zealand suddenly had a clear path to senior and agegroup World Cups, as the rest of the Pacific offered little competition. Since then, the Ferns have made great strides, earning their first World Cup point in 2011, when

Rebecca Smith and Hannah Wilkinson’s stoppage time goals secured a 2-2 draw with Mexico, and their first win at a major event when they downed Cameroon 3-1 at the London Olympics in 2012.

The team – and NZ Football – were put under the spotlight in 2018, when a dozen players made formal complaints about the conduct of their coach at the time, Andreas Heraf, which were later substantiated. The saga caused much disruption when they should have preparing for the 2019 World Cup. At the end of that year as New Zealand made history at the Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay winning the bronze medal, when no other Kiwi team had ever made it past the first knockout stage.

Hopes were high that the Ferns would finally break their World Cup duck last year when they faced Cameroon, the same team they had beaten at the London Olympics, but they ultimately suffered a 2-1 defeat. That first World Cup win will be the team’s aim in 2023, and there would be no better place than on home soil. They should be seeded top of their pool resulting in a more favourable draw than otherwise.

The event will be held from July 10 to August 20 that year.