Get live updates from the draw for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and read all about the tournament below.
Canada will welcome the best in women’s soccer next summer when it hosts the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about the draw.
What’s going on?
FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, will hold the draw for next summer’s Women’s World Cup on Saturday at the Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.
The draw will separate the 24-nation field into six round robin groups—so each team will learn who its first-round opponents will be, and the path they’ll have to take to get to the final.
The 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place in six cities across Canada (Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton) from June 6 to July 5.
Which nations will compete at World Cup?
Canada automatically qualified as host nation. The other CONCACAF teams are Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States (finalist in 2011).
Asia will be represented by Japan (the reigning champions), China, South Korea, Australia and Thailand.
The African contingent is made up of Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon. New Zealand qualified as the Oceania champion. Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador will represent South America.
The UEFA participants include: Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, England, France and the Netherlands.
The expansion of the tournament from 16 to 24 teams will see eight nations making their Women’s World Cup debut in Canada: Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Thailand, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica and Ecuador.
How does the draw work?
As host, Canada, currently ranked eighth in the world by FIFA, is one of the six tournament seeds, and will be placed in Pot 1 in Saturday’s draw.
Aside from Canada, the seeded nations are the U.S. (No. 1 in the world), Germany (No. 2), Japan (No. 3), France (No. 4), and Brazil (No. 6).
All of the seeded nations will be in Pot 1, thus ensuring that all of top six teams won’t meet in the group stage.
Which teams are in which pots?
Pot 1: Canada, Germany, Japan, U.S., Brazil and France
Pot 2: Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, Mexico and New Zealand
Pot 3: Australia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Colombia, and Ecuador
Pot 4: Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, England and Netherlands
The draw will place each of the top seeds from Pot 1 into six different groups. Once that has taken place, the draw will move on to Pot 2 and put each team into six different pots. The same will then happen for Pots 3 and 4.
Teams from the same confederation can’t be in the same group. So, for example, Canada (Pot 1) will avoid Costa Rica and Mexico (Pot 2). Brazil (Pot 1) can’t be grouped with Colombia and Ecuador (Pot 3).
The exception to this rule is Germany and France (Pot 1), as Pot 6 is made up entirely of European teams—so each group will have at least one side from Europe.
How does the tournament work?
Saturday’s draw will divide the 24 teams into eight round-robin groups of four.
The top two nations in each group will automatically move on to the Round of 16. The four-best third-place teams will also qualify for the knockout round.