3 teams that benefit from FIFA Women’s World Cup expansion

FIFA has expanded the Women’s World Cup to 32 teams and these are the teams that stand to benefit the most.

The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will represent the largest field and doubles the size from the 16-team field in 2011. For comparison, the men’s World Cup had 24 teams compete in four editions and 2022 will be the seventh and final men’s tournament with 32 teams before it expands to 48. The women had just two World Cups with 24 teams and it’s already expanded again.

The growth is incredible and so many nations will benefit from the expansion in years to come. While we could see more blowouts, fans can’t complain about more games and seeing more teams get a chance to play at this level. But for now, here are three that will take this expansion in stride in four years from now.

Mexico

Currently, CONCACAF has 3.5 spots. The half means a CONCACAF team would compete in an intercontinental playoff against a team from South America for the final World Cup place. This isn’t guaranteed but the expectation is CONCACAF could have four or five teams qualify which gives Mexico a higher chance of returning to the World Cup.

El Tri missed their first World Cup since 2007 and with Jamaica and Costa Rica improving year after year, Mexico could go down the pecking order. Right now, they rank 27th in the world and third-best in the region. A positive sign for the future came when the U-17 team finished runners-up last year in the U17 World Cup. No doubt the Mexican team will prove that 2019 was a fluke and have a much better chance of making sure they qualify.

North Korea

North Korea is a power in women’s soccer in Asia and hasn’t played in the last two World Cups. They were banned from the 2015 tournament and missed this summers edition with Asia only having a guaranteed five spots. An extra eight slots mean Asia could be getting one extra or at least a team to make an intercontinental playoff.

Asia has been a center for women’s soccer over the years with the success of China and Japan but both nations had disappointing World Cup exits along with Australia. North Korea is the ninth-ranked team in the world and no doubt will retool and rebuild for a chance to return to a tournament they used to be in regularly.

Switzerland

While the men’s tournament’s expansion mission is to give more guaranteed spots to African, Oceanian and Asian teams, FIFA’s decision to expand for the women could be a way to get more European teams to the world’s biggest tournament. Europe had its best season of women’s soccer with club matches setting ticket records and seven European nations occupying the eight quarterfinal spots at the World Cup. I would not be surprised if Europe gets at least three if not four of those extra eight slots FIFA have made for 2023.

Denmark, Iceland, Ukraine, Belgium could benefit as well. The strongest of the bunch is Switzerland who ranks 18th in the world, made the Round of 16 in 2015 and have a crop of veteran and young players that can make them a darkhorse in 2023. Keep names like Ramona Bachmann, Geraldine Reuteler, Anna-Maria Crnogorcevic, and Alisha Lehmann in mind when Switzerland compete for a spot in 2023.