Women’s World Cup 2027: FIFA sets date for crucial play-off draw in Zurich

The race for the final three places at the 2027 Women’s World Cup will move into a decisive phase when FIFA stages the draw for the preliminary play-off tournament on Thursday, 20 August 2026.

The draw will take place at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich from 14:00 local time and will determine how six teams are arranged in the opening phase of the inter-confederation play-offs.

South Africa and Ghana are the two African representatives still involved in the qualification process. They will be joined by Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan from the AFC, Ecuador from CONMEBOL and Papua New Guinea from the OFC.

The six teams have been placed into three pots according to the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking published on 16 June 2026.

Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan are in Pot 1, while South Africa and Papua New Guinea occupy Pot 2. Ghana and Ecuador are in Pot 3.

A key restriction will apply during the draw: teams from the same confederation cannot be paired against one another.

The preliminary phase will be played during the international window from 24 November to 5 December 2026. The draw procedure has established nine matches involving the six participating teams, with each side playing three times.

At the end of that phase, the two teams with the highest points totals will progress to the final stage of the play-offs.

South Africa and Ghana must therefore finish among the top two if they are to remain in contention for a place at the tournament in Brazil. Any dropped points could make their route to the 2027 finals considerably more difficult.

Final play-off stage

The final phase will feature six teams. The two qualifiers from the preliminary stage will be joined by four nations entering at that point: two representatives from Concacaf, Venezuela from CONMEBOL and one team from UEFA.

Those six sides will be divided into three knockout paths. The winner of each path will claim one of the three remaining places at the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

The final phase is scheduled to take place during the international window from 23 February to 6 March 2027.

The Zurich event will also provide the first details of the tournament schedule. FIFA is due to publish the match calendar for the 2027 Women’s World Cup during the same ceremony.

The competition will be held in Brazil from 24 June to 25 July 2027. It will be the 10th edition of the Women’s World Cup and the first to be staged in South America.

For South Africa and Ghana, the 20 August draw will mark the opening step in what could become a lengthy battle for one of the three final tickets to the tournament.