While the men's tournament dominates the headlines, the clock is already ticking on the 2027 Women's World Cup. Fourteen teams are qualified. A host country is buzzing. And the biggest question in women's football right now is whether a 40-year-old Brazilian icon can make one last run at the title that has always escaped her.
Brazil hosts the tournament — the first Women's World Cup ever held in South America — starting June 24, 2027. Eight host cities were all used in the 2014 men's edition: Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, and Salvador. The infrastructure is there. The passion has never been in question. What Brazil has never managed is lifting the trophy.
Marta's last dance?
Marta — six-time FIFA world player of the year, arguably the greatest women's footballer of her generation — has never won a major international tournament. She's 40. Whether she'll even be in the squad is genuinely unclear. That storyline alone is going to drive enormous interest in Brazil's group stage matches, and the betting markets around their progression will be shaped partly by whether she features or not.
Thirteen other teams have already secured their spots alongside the hosts: Australia, Philippines, Japan, North Korea, China, South Korea, Argentina, Colombia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Spain, and Denmark. Defending champions Spain are there. So is a Japan side that continues to punch above its weight in women's football.
The bigger picture: expansion is coming
This will be the last Women's World Cup with 32 teams. In 2031 — expected to be hosted by the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Jamaica — the field expands to 48, mirroring the men's tournament. FIFA chief football officer Jill Ellis made the case that the competitive gap between nations is closing fast enough to justify it. The last 32-team edition already delivered upsets and debutantes reaching the knockout rounds.
Whether 48 teams produces a tighter tournament or dilutes the early rounds is a debate that will run until 2031. For now, Brazil 2027 is the focus — and a nation that breathes football hosting the women's game for the first time is, at minimum, a genuinely compelling backdrop.
CBF president Samir Xaud called it "a moment that will be marked in the history of our country." Brazil has hosted the men's World Cup twice. The women's tournament is a different kind of test — one the country has never passed on home soil.
