
When does the Women’s World Cup start?
The 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup runs from 24 June to 25 July 2027 in Brazil. The Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro hosts both the opening match, featuring Brazil, and the final. This is the first Women’s World Cup to be held in South America.
Brazil’s other two group matches are scheduled for 29 June in São Paulo and 4 July in Brasília.
What does the draw decide?
FIFA has scheduled the final draw for 11 December 2026 at 13:30 in Rio de Janeiro (16:30 UTC). The draw assigns teams to groups. Brazil is already set as the first team in Group A because it is hosting.
Three places will be represented by placeholders at the draw. The play-offs that decide those places are due to finish during the 23 February to 6 March 2027 international window. FIFA says it will confirm an updated schedule with kick-off times after the final draw.
Which cities are hosting matches?
The eight host cities are Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and São Paulo. Each city is scheduled to stage at least one knockout match. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro each host a semi-final, and São Paulo hosts the third-place match.
That means the capital, Brasília, is a host city, while the opening and closing matches are both in Rio. For a particular fixture, use the official match schedule.
How do 32 teams turn into 64 matches?
There are eight groups of four teams. Each team plays the other three once, which makes six fixtures in each group and 48 group matches in all. The top two teams in each group go through to the round of 16.
The last 16 play knockout matches. There are eight games in the round of 16, four quarter-finals and two semi-finals. Add the final and the match for third place and you get 16 more fixtures, for 64 in total.
If you’re planning to watch, see how long a football match can last and why added time and extra time are two different things.
If you’re new to following a match, our guide to the offside rule explains one of the calls you’ll hear most often.
