Teams making FIFA Women's World Cup debuts in 2023: List of nations who qualified for the first time

Joel Sritharan

Teams making FIFA Women's World Cup debuts in 2023: List of nations who qualified for the first time image

The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup will get underway in Australia and New Zealand on July 20 before finishing a month later on August 20.

Reigning champions USA are looking to become the first country to win three consecutive World Cups while Sarina Wiegman's England will try to add to their 2022 European Championship success.

With the field expanding to 32 teams for the first time — up from 24 in previous editions — many countries are making their World Cup debut.

The Sporting News looks at the teams who will participate at the Women's World cup for the first time.

MORE: FIFA U20 World Cup schedule matches and results as they happened

Teams making FIFA Women's World Cup debuts in 2023

At the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, eight of the 32 countries will be making their debut on the world stage. 20 of the teams at the 2023 edition also played at the 2019 tournament.

There will be two debutants from the Asian, African, North American, and European continents, including the Republic of Ireland. Zambia are the lowest ranked side in the tournament, while other debut nations Portugal, Panama and Haiti qualified through the playoffs.

Co-hosts New Zealand are the only country representing the Oceanic confederation while the Philippines and Vietnam are now representing Asia alongside China, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.

Iceland (16) were the highest ranked team not to qualify for the competition. Scotland, Cameroon, Chile and Thailand are the four teams who played at the 2019 Women's World Cup but did not make the cut for 2023.

Team Confederation
Haiti CONCACAF
Morocco CAF
Panama CONCACAF
Philippines AFC
Portugal UEFA
Republic of Ireland UEFA
Vietnam AFC
Zambia CAF

Which teams have qualified for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup?

No. Nation (FIFA Ranking) Region Date qualified How they qualified World Cup apps Titles (Last)
1 Australia (13) AFC Jun. 25, 2020 Co-hosts 8 of 9  —
2 New Zealand (22) OFC Jun. 25, 2020 Co-hosts 6 of 9  —
3 Japan (11) AFC Jan. 30, 2022 Asian Cup semi-finalists 9 of 9 1 (2011)
4 South Korea (17) AFC Jan. 30, 2022 Asian Cup semi-finalists 4 of 9  —
5 China (15) AFC Jan. 30, 2022 Asian Cup semi-finalists 8 of 9  —
6 Philippines (53) AFC Jan. 30, 2022 Asian Cup semi-finalists 1 of 9  —
7 Vietnam (34) AFC Feb. 6, 2022 Asian Cup play-offs 1 of 9  —
8 Sweden (2) UEFA Apr. 12, 2022 Group winners 9 of 9  —
9 Spain (6) UEFA Apr. 12, 2022 Group winners 3 of 9  —
10 France (5) UEFA Apr. 12, 2022 Group winners 5 of 9  —
11 Denmark (18) UEFA Apr. 12, 2022 Group winners 5 of 9  —
12 United States (1) CONCACAF Jul. 6, 2022 Group winners 9 of 9 4 (2019)
13 Canada (7) CONCACAF Jul. 8, 2022 Group winners 8 of 9  —
14 Costa Rica (37) CONCACAF Jul. 8, 2022 Group runners-up 2 of 9  —
15 Jamaica (43) CONCACAF Jul. 11, 2022 Group runners-up 2 of 9  —
16 Zambia (81) CAF Jul. 13, 2022 WAFCON semi-finalists 1 of 9  —
17 Morocco (76) CAF Jul. 13, 2022 WAFCON semi-finalists 1 of 9  —
18 Nigeria (45) CAF Jul. 14, 2022 WAFCON semi-finalists 9 of 9  —
19 South Africa (54) CAF Jul. 14, 2022 WAFCON semi-finalists 2 of 9  —
20 Colombia (27) CONMEBOL Jul. 26, 2022 Copa America Fem. finalists 3 of 9  —
21 Brazil (9) CONMEBOL Jul. 26, 2022 Copa America Fem. finalists 9 of 9  —
22 Argentina (29) CONMEBOL Jul. 29, 2022 Copa America Fem. 3rd place 4 of 9  —
23 Norway (12) UEFA Sep. 2, 2022 Group winners 9 of 9 1 (1995)
24 Germany (3) UEFA Sep. 3, 2022 Group winners 9 of 9 2 (2007)
25 England (4) UEFA Sep. 3, 2022 Group winners 6 of 9  —
26 Italy (14) UEFA Sep. 6, 2022 Group winners 4 of 9  —
27 Netherlands (8) UEFA Sep. 6, 2022 Group winners 3 of 9  —
28 Switzerland (21) UEFA Oct. 11, 2022 UEFA playoff winners 2 of 9  —
29 Republic of Ireland (24) UEFA Oct. 11, 2022 UEFA playoff winners 1 of 9  —
30 Haiti (55) CONCACAF Feb. 21, 2023 World Cup playoff 1 of 9  —
31 Portugal (22) UEFA Feb. 22, 2023 World Cup playoff 1 of 9  —
32 Panama (57) CONCACAF Feb. 23, 2023 World Cup playoff 1 of 9

Joel Sritharan

Joel Sritharan Photo

Joel Sritharan is a freelance writer for Sporting News UK.