Australia’s Sarah Hunter, Courtney Nevin, and Clare Hunt take a selfie with the Women’s World Cup as the trophy goes on tour around the joint host countries in the month before the opening game on July 20 – SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
The 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup will be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand and begins on July 20. This ninth global tournament is split across nine cities and 10 venues, six in Australia and four in New Zealand where the holders, USA, will be based for the group stages in their quest to win a hat-trick of world titles.
England, the European champions and semi-finalists in 2015 and 2019, will play their Group D matches in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide while the other 30 qualifying teams’ games also take place in Melbourne, Perth, Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Hamilton.
With all but five of the 48 group games scheduled to take place in the late afternoon or evening across four distinct time zones, there will be a confusing melange of kick-off times but, with one eye on the US market, USA have been awarded two of the early kick-offs, both at Eden Park Auckland, which will be at 6pm (the day before) on the US West Coast and 9pm on the Eastern Seaboard.
Why have the TV rights been so controversial?
Fifa’s decision to unbundle the broadcasting rights for the Women’s World Cup from the men’s tournament for the first time provoked a bitter stand-off between the governing body and the “big five” European markets – UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Given the scheduling in the southern hemisphere ruling out any hope of prime time kick-offs, the initial offers were low, as little as one per cent of the offers for the men’s rights, provoking Gianni Infantino, the Fifa president, to call them a “slap in the face” to the players and “all women worldwide”.
BBC and ITV will share the tournament coverage – Alex Davidson/Getty Images
After a long argument in the winter that spiralled into spring, Infantino took the doomsday option threatening a media blackout for Europe’s traditional, financial powerhouses. “It is our moral and legal obligation not to undersell the Fifa Women’s World Cup,” he said. “Therefore, should the offers continue not to be fair, we will be forced not to broadcast the Fifa’s Women’s World Cup into the ‘big five’ European countries.”
After six weeks of bargaining and rhetoric, a compromise was reached and a deal announced with the “big five” on June 15. In the United States, long-standing agreements for both English and Spanish-language rights had been more straightforward.
How to watch in the UK
BBC and ITV submitted a joint bid and will share coverage of the games, ITV showing two of the group games, the BBC one while knockout games will be divvied up at a later date and both will host the final. All 64 matches will be shown across the BBC network, on ITV and ITV 4. The BBC also won live radio rights and will broadcast commentary on BBC Radio 5 Live and 5 Sports Extra.
Saturday, July 22 England vs Haiti, 10.30am BST, ITV
Friday July 28 England vs Denmark, 9.30am BBC
Tuesday August 1 China vs England, noon ITV
The final, on Sunday, August 20 starts at 11am in the UK.
How to watch in the United States
Fox has the English language rights to the World Cup for the third tournament in succession and will spread the games on Fox and FS1 while Peacock, Telemundo and Universo will broadcast the games in Spanish.
Fox has announced that their studio team comprises Carli Lloyd, Karina Leblanc, Alexi Lalas, Ariana Hingst, Kate Gill, Stuart Holden and Heather O’Reilly while commentators include JP Dellacamera and Jacqui Oatley.
Friday, July 21 USA vs Vietnam, 9pm ET, 6pm Pacific
Wednesday, July 26 USA vs Netherlands, 9pm ET, 6pm Pacific
Tuesday, August 1 Portugal vs USA, 3am ET, midnight Pacific
The final, should they make it for the fourth successive World Cup, is on Sunday, August 20, kick-off at 6am ET, 3am Pacific.
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