Thirteen nations, including New Zealand, have now booked their places at the 2024 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to be held in the Dominican Republic.
Three Asian teams and three European sides are the latest to qualify for the 16-nation tournament.
The only remaining spots are reserved for three African sides who are yet to complete their qualifying tournament.
The New Zealand team, whose head coach will be Canterbury’s Alan Gunn, will represent Oceania and have qualified for all eight editions of the tournament.
The 2024 tournament will be held from October 16 – November 3, 2024, with games played in the cities of Santiago and Santo Domingo.
The 13 nations who have qualified
- New Zealand, who qualified by winning the OFC U-16 Women’s Championship in Tahiti in September 2023.
READ MORE: Late winner gets New Zealand through to FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup >>>>
- Dominican Republic, as the host nation of the tournament.
- Japan, North Korea and South Korea, who qualified through the 2024 AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup in May 2024.
- Mexico and the United States, who qualified through the 2024 CONCACAF Women’s U-17 Championship in February 2024.
- Brazil, Columbia and Ecuador, who qualified through the 2024 South American U-17 Women’s Championship, in March 2024.
- England, Poland and Spain, who qualified through the 2024 UEFA Women’s U-17 Championship, in May 2024.
Who might join them
The three remaining places at the tournament will go to African teams through the 2024 African U-17 Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
The tournament started in December 2023 and concludes in June 2024. Of the 25 African nations that entered the qualifiers, only six are left with a chance of reaching the World Cup.
They are Burundi, Kenya, Zambia, Morocco, Liberia and Nigeria.
Three nations will be making their first-ever appearance at the U-17 Women’s World Cup — Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Poland.
Changes planned for future U-17 World Cups
The U-17 tournament will become an annual event for 24 nations in 2025 and will be held in Morocco from 2025-29.
Oceania will have two qualifying teams. Other slot allocations will be AFC (4), CAF(5), Concacaf (4), CONMEBOL(4), UEFA (5).
READ MORE: Key decisions made as FIFA releases women’s international calendar >>>>
READ MORE: New Zealand’s pathway to future FIFA U-17 World Cups gets easier >>>>
Main photo credit: FIFA.
Previous winners
2008: DPR Korea
2010: Korea Republic
2012: France
2014: Japan
2016: DPR Korea
2018: Spain
2022: Spain
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