The 2035 Women’s World Cup, set to be held in the UK, will feature 48 teams, FIFA has announced.
The FIFA Council voted on Friday to expand the competition from the 2031 finals onwards.
That tournament is set to be awarded to the United States with support from other nations in the region.
The change does not come as a surprise, with bid documents for the 2031 and 2035 tournaments published in March mentioning the current 32-team format remained “subject to change”.
The Football Associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been confirmed by FIFA as the sole bidders to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2035.
— The FA (@FA) April 3, 2025
The UK is almost certain to host the 2035 finals after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said last month it was the only “valid bid” received.
A formal bid document must be formally submitted in November and evaluated, before a vote to rubberstamp by FIFA Congress in the second quarter of 2026.
The tournament only expanded to 32 teams from 16 in 2023.
There was scepticism over that decision but the finals in Australia and New Zealand threw up plenty of surprises and were very competitive, with only three of the 32 teams failing to register a point.
The decision means that from 2031 the Women’s World Cup will feature the same number of teams as the men’s finals, although there is a proposal from South America to expand the centenary finals in 2030 to 64 teams on a one-off basis, something UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described last month as a “bad idea”.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has been a strong advocate for expanding the women’s finals to 48 teams, while Football Association president Mark Bullingham said last month the four national associations would be “really comfortable” if the finals were expanded to 48 teams.
That would likely require 16 venues, which Bullingham believes would allow the tournament to create more impact across the four nations.
Infantino said on Friday: “This is not just about having 16 more teams playing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup but taking the next steps in relation to the women’s game in general by ensuring that more FIFA member associations have the chance to benefit from the tournament to develop their women’s football structures from a holistic point of view.
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, the first in which teams from all confederations won at least one game and teams from five confederations reached the knockout stage, among many other records, set a new standard for global competitiveness. This decision ensures we are maintaining the momentum in terms of growing women’s football globally.”
The Council also approved a plan to establish an Afghanistan women’s refugee team. FIFA is engaging directly with the relevant players, with women’s sport banned in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime.
FIFA also announced a strengthening of its rules to tackle racism.
Maximum fines in instances of racist abuse have been increased from one million Swiss francs to five million Swiss francs (£4.5m), and all confederations will be required to implement the ‘three-step’ protocol to deal with incidents of racism.
FIFA also reserves the right to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against decisions in cases of racist abuse, and intervene in cases where it feels insufficient action has been taken by a national association.
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