2035 FIFA Women's World Cup

2035 FIFA Women's World Cup

Tournament details
Host countries	England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales
Dates	2035
Teams	48 (from 6 confederations)
← 2031 2039 →

The 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup is scheduled to be the 12th edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football championship contested by the national teams that represent the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be hosted by England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as they are the sole bidders. ^[1] 2035 will be the second tournament to feature 48 national teams.

The tournament will be the first time that England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales host the FIFA Women's World Cup, and also be the fourth in Europe after Sweden in 1995, Germany in 2011, and France in 2019. England will also become the eighth country to host both the men's and women's World Cup, having hosted the former in 1966. It is also set to be the first FIFA tournament to be held in Northern Ireland and Wales, and the second to be held in Scotland since 1989.

Host selection

Main article: 2031 and 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup bids

The host nation for the 2031 Women's World Cup is scheduled to be officially decided by the 76th FIFA Congress on 30 April 2026 in Vancouver, two years after the host selection for the 2027 edition. ^{[2] [3]} On 5 March 2025 the FIFA Council approved the bid regulations which restricted bids to UEFA and CAF members. ^[4] The key dates include: ^[5]

• 31 March 2025: Member associations to submit their expressions of interest to host the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cup
• 30 April 2025: Member associations to confirm their interest in bidding to host the Women's World Cup by submitting the bidding agreement
• Q2 2025: Bid workshop and observer programme to take place
• 28 November 2025: Member associations to submit their bids to FIFA
• February 2026: FIFA to organise on-site inspection visits to bidding countries
• March 2026: Publication of FIFA's bid evaluation report
• 2nd quarter: Designation of bids by the FIFA Council
• 30 April 2026: Appointment of the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cup host(s) by the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada.

Although the host nation has not been confirmed, the submitted sole bid was unveiled. ^[6] On 3 April 2025, FIFA announced that the United Kingdom home nations bid was the only valid bid. ^[7]

Format

The 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup will be contested by 48 teams as part of an expansion starting with the 2031 edition. ^[8]

Venues

In its hosting requirements document, FIFA stipulated that the 32-team competition will have a minimum of eight stadiums—of which at least five were existing venues. The stadiums would have minimum seating capacities of 20,000 for most matches, 40,000 for semifinal matches, and 65,000 for the opening match and final. ^[9] However, additional changes will be made to accommodate the expansion to 48. Manchester United have expressed interest in hosting this final ^[10] in their yet-to-be built 100,000 seater stadium, though reports have indicated the FA prefers Wembley Stadium. Other interested cities currently include Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sunderland, and Wrexham. ^{[11] [12] [13]}

No venue in Northern Ireland currently meets the minimum capacity requirement, with the largest existing stadium, Windsor Park, having only 18,500 capacity. Plans for the redevelopment of Casement Park into a 34,500 capacity venue for the UEFA Euro 2028 were stalled and resulted in Northern Ireland withdrawing from hosting the tournament. ^{[14] [15]}

On 28 November 2025, the formal bid submission proposed 22 venues in 16 cities, including some planned and provisional stadiums. It's not known yet how many venues will be used for the tournament. The bid submission also highlights that 63 million people live within two hours of any proposed venue. ^{[16] [17]}

Belfast

Birmingham

Brighton and Hove

Bristol

Cardiff

Edinburgh

Glasgow

Leeds

Liverpool

London

Manchester

Newcastle upon Tyne

Nottingham

Sunderland

Wrexham

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Shortlisted locations

List of host cities and stadiums Country City Stadium Capacity Image England London Wembley Stadium 90,000 Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 62,850 Emirates Stadium 60,704 Stamford Bridge [a] 40,022 Selhurst Park 25,486 (to be renovated) [16] Manchester Old Trafford [b] 74,197 Etihad Stadium 61,470 (after renovation) Birmingham New Birmingham City Stadium 62,000 Villa Park 50,000 (after renovation) Leeds Elland Road 53,000 (after renovation) [18] Liverpool Hill Dickinson Stadium 52,769 Newcastle St James' Park 52,305 Sunderland Stadium of Light 49,000 Brighton & Hove American Express Stadium 31,876 Nottingham City Ground 30,404 (to be renovated) [16] Bristol Ashton Gate 26,462 Northern Ireland Belfast Windsor Park 18,500 (to be renovated) [16] Scotland Glasgow Hampden Park 51,866 Edinburgh Easter Road 20,421 Wales Cardiff Millennium Stadium 73,931 Cardiff City Stadium 33,280 Wrexham Racecourse Ground 15,500 (to be renovated) [16]

Teams

Qualification

FIFA's confederations organise their own qualifying competitions, with the exception of CAF and CONCACAF which qualify teams through continental championships. The hosts England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive automatic qualification for the tournament, leaving most of the remaining FIFA member associations eligible to enter qualification if they chose to do so. Wales and Northern Ireland will participate for the first time ever, but may still qualify for 2027 or 2031.

The allocation of slots below was announced by the FIFA Council in April 2025. The slot for the host nation will be taken directly from the quotas allocated to their confederation.

• AFC (Asia): TBD
• CAF (Africa): TBD
• CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): TBD
• CONMEBOL (South America): TBD
• OFC (Oceania): TBD
• UEFA (Europe): TBD (including co-hosts England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales)
• Inter-confederation play-off tournament: TBD

Qualified teams

Team	Qualified as	Qualification date	Appearance in finals	Last appearance	Consecutive streak	Previous best performance
England	Co-hosts	3 April 2025 [c]	7th/8th/9th	2023/2027/2031	1/2/8	Runners-up (2023)
Northern Ireland			1st/2nd/3rd	None/2027/2031	1/2/3	Debut
Scotland			2nd/3rd/4th	2019/2027/2031	1/2/3	Group stage (2019)
Wales			1st/2nd/3rd	None/2027/2031	1/2/3	Debut

Notes

1. Provisional, the stadium does not meet FIFA’s technical requirements, and will either be renovated or moved to a newly built stadium. ^[16]
2. Provisional, may switch to New Trafford Stadium.
3. On 3 April 2025, FIFA announced that the England–Northern Ireland–Scotland–Wales bid was the only valid bid, however, the official host will be officially appointed on 30 April 2026.

References

1. "UK set to host Women's World Cup in 2035 after FIFA reveals home nations are 'sole bidders' for tournament". Sky Sports. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
2. "FIFA Council endorsed international match calendar principles and competitions". FIFA+. FIFA. 16 December 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
3. "FIFA Council highlights record breaking revenue in football". FIFA. 14 February 2023. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
4. "FIFA Council approves unprecedented prize money pot for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and takes key decisions on women's competitions". inside.fifa.com.
5. "FIFA Women's World Cup 2031 and FIFA Women's World Cup 2035 Overview of the Bidding Processes" (PDF). FIFA . 5 March 2025. Retrieved 5 March 2025.
6. "USA set to host 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup, UK in line to stage 2035 edition". olympics.com. 16 December 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
7. "UK set to host 2035 Women's World Cup as only 'valid' bid". BBC Sport. 3 April 2025. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
8. Keogh, Emily (3 April 2025). "Infantino: USA set to host 2031 Women's World Cup, UK gets 2035".
9. "FIFA Women's World Cup 2031 Overview of Hosting Requirements" (PDF). FIFA. 6 March 2025. p. 4. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
10. Critchley, Mark; Joseph, Sam (9 July 2025). "Manchester United hope new stadium will host 2035 World Cup final, aim to finish project in 5 to 6 years". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 10 July 2025.
11. Light, George (19 August 2025). "Wrexham told how much stadium redevelopment is needed before they can actually host Women's World Cup games". The Wrexham Insider.
12. "Leeds United's Elland Road stadium could stage games at the 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup". Yorkshire Post. 9 September 2025.
13. "Bristol Women's Football World Cup bid approved despite concerns over cost to city council". Bristol Live. 16 October 2025.
14. "Stormont backs bid for Women's World Cup matches in Belfast". BBC. 16 October 2025.
15. "NI will not have automatic Euro 2028 spot - FAI". BBC Sport. 26 November 2024.
16. "All Together - The UK's FIFA Women's World Cup 2035 bid announced". The Football Association . 28 November 2025.
17. "Joint bid submitted for FIFA Women's World Cup 2035". Football Association of Wales . 28 November 2025.
18. Waite, Richard (1 October 2025). "Leeds United substitution: BDP replaces KSS on Elland Road expansion". The Architects’ Journal. Retrieved 24 October 2025.

External links

• Official website