Overview:

With only one month until the 2027 Women’s World Cup draw, FIFA announced on Wednesday the procedures that will determine the pathway in the 48-team tournament.

With only one month until the 2027 Women’s World Cup draw, FIFA announced on Wednesday the procedures that will determine the pathway in the 48-team tournament.

The final draw will take place at Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Modern Art on Friday, Dec. 11 at 3:30 p.m. ET.

On Thursday, Dec. 10, the draw for the final phase of the Women’s World Cup PlayOff Tournament will determine the fixtures that will decide the final three places of the tournament.

The final draw procedures stipulate that the hosts, Brazil, will be allocated to Pot 1 and automatically assigned to position A1, as confirmed in the match schedule published in August. The hosts will begin their campaign at the Estádio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, June 24, before playing their other two group-stage matches at the Arena Itaquera in Sao Paulo on Tuesday, June 29, and at the Estádio Nacional in Brasília on Sunday, July 4.

The other 31 teams – the 28 teams that have qualified by the time of the draw and three placeholders for the playoff tournament – will be allocated across four pots of eight teams each, based on the FIFA Women’s World Ranking that will be published on Monday, Dec. 7. The top seven qualified teams in the ranking will join Brazil in Pot 1. The next eight highest-ranked qualified teams will be placed in Pot 2, with the following eight teams allocated to Pot 3. Pot 4 will contain the last five qualified teams as well as three placeholders representing the winners of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 Play-Off Tournament, which will be played during the Women’s International Match Window from 23 February to 6 March 2027.

The draw will begin with hosts Brazil, represented by a different-colored ball and automatically assigned to Group A as team A1. The remaining seven teams from Pot 1 will then be drawn and assigned to the subsequent groups, followed by all teams from Pots 2, 3 and 4 in sequence. Each pot will be emptied before the next one is drawn. The draw will conclude once all teams from Pot 4 have been allocated to a group.

Draw constraints

Rules state that no group contains more than one team from the same confederation. This principle applies to all confederations except UEFA, which will be represented by 11 teams and could have as many as 12 representatives depending on the outcome of the playoff tournament. As a result, each group will contain at least one UEFA team and no more than two.

In addition, to ensure competitive balance and similarly to the 2026 men’s World Cup, two separate pathways to the semifinals have been established. The four highest-ranked teams in the most recent Women’s World Ranking published before the draw will be subject to additional constraints. The highest-ranked and second-highest-ranked teams will be drawn into groups on opposite pathways. The same principle will apply to the third- and fourth-highest-ranked teams. This measure will ensure that, should they win their respective groups, the two highest-ranked teams cannot meet before the final.

The detailed draw procedures, including the appendixes that determine the group positions, are available on FIFA.com.

Final match schedule

The match allocation process that follows the draw is designed to provide the best possible conditions for all participating teams while, where possible, enabling fans around the world to watch their teams play live across different time zones. As a result, the updated match schedule, including stadium allocations and kick-off times, will be confirmed in due course after the draw.

Playoff tournament

At the time of the final draw, the final three places will still be up for grabs. The matches in the final phase will be played during the Women’s International Match Window from Feb. 23 to March 5, 2027 and will consist of single-match ties, with the winner of each match securing one of the last three places at the World Cup.