The next step in South Africa’s bid to compete at next year’s Women’s World Cup will be taken on Thursday when the draw is conducted for the first of two inter-confederation playoffs tournament .
Ghana and South Africa compete in the tournament after missing out on automatic qualification at this month’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco but if they win through the two tournaments will qualify for next year’s 32-team tournament in Brazil.
There are three places that are available via two separate playoff tournaments.
The first will be held between 24 November - 5 December at a venue that is still to be announced but Thursday’s draw, being held in Zurich at 2pm South African time, will pair off the protagonists.
The six teams that have qualified for the play-off tournament -- South Africa and Ghana from Africa, Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan from Asia, Ecuador from South America and Papua New Guinea from Oceania will be allocated to three pots according to the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking, as issued on 16 June.
The two highest-ranked teams (Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan) are in pot 1, the next two highest-ranked teams (South Africa and Papua New Guinea) in pot 2 and the remaining two teams (Ghana and Ecuador) in pot 3.
The draw will begin with the first team picked from pot 1 being assigned as team A1, followed by the second team as team A2. The draw will then continue by drawing all of the teams from pots 2 and 3, in that order.
As per FIFA's general principle, teams from the same confederation shall not be drawn to play against each other. If a team is drawn into a position that would result in such a situation, the team shall be allocated to the next available position.
The teams will be assigned to nine pre-defined match fixtures as per the draw procedures. Each team will play a total of three matches, with those finishing first and second overall in the preliminary phase advancing to the final phase, which will be held during the international window from 23 February - 6 March next year.
The draw for the final phase, which will be conducted later this year, will determine how the six participating teams (two teams advancing from the first playoff and the four teams that qualify directly for the final phase) are divided into three paths, which will decide the final three teams to qualify for the flagship women’s tournament.
The four teams that have qualified for the last playoff are made up of Venezuela plus two sides from the CONCACAF region and one from Europe that are still to be determined.
The Women’s World Cup 2027 will be played between 24 June - 25 July next year. The tournament will mark the 10th edition of the world's biggest women's sporting event and the first to be held in South America.