FIFA issued its branding for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, on Thursday, with a new tournament slogan, “Beyond Greatness.”

INTRODUCING...

The exciting new #FIFAWWC 2023 brand identity, incorporating the vibrant local landscapes & rich colours of 🇦🇺🇳🇿.

Beyond Greatness™ – a new tournament slogan to unite & inspire people around the 🌏 through the power of the tournament AND 👩⚽.

😍 pic.twitter.com/3KpZFH7cN0

— FIFA Women's World Cup (@FIFAWWC) October 28, 2021

The new slogan, FIFA says, “aims to unite and inspire people around the world” through both the power of the Women’s World Cup and women’s soccer. The branding identity and emblem feature bright colors, meant to incorporate the “vibrant local landscapes and rich colours” of both New Zealand and Australia. As a result, FIFA built a palette based on the geographical attributes of the two countries, including the rainforests, mountains, cities and water that surround both countries.

A radical motif on the logo features 32 squares surrounding a soccer ball, which is meant to celebrate the tournament’s expansion to 32 participating nations. Additionally, the logo includes elements inspired by the indigenous cultures of Australia and New Zealand.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 Women’s World Cup:

Dates: 

The tournament is set to kick off July 20 and run through August 20, 2023.

Setting:

The 2023 Women’s World Cup is set to be hosted by Australia and New Zealand. As such, the games will be split between the two countries, with four sites in New Zealand and five sites in Australia.

Host cities and stadiums: 

Nine cities will play host to the 2023 Women’s World Cup. They are:

• Adelaide, AU – Hindmarsh Stadium
• Auckland, NZ – Eden Park
• Brisbane, AU – Brisbane Stadium
• Dunedin, NZ – Dunedin Stadium
• Hamilton, NZ – Waikato Stadium
• Melbourne, AU – Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
• Perth, AU – Perth Rectangular Stadium
• Sydney, AU – Stadium Australia and Sydney Football Stadium
• Wellington, NZ – Wellington Stadium

How do teams qualify?

Qualification for the next World Cup is already underway, with the 2023 UEFA FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification (UEFA) period having begun on Sept. 16 and the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup (AFC) having started on Sept. 17. The 2022 Africa Women Cup of Nations (CAF) began on Oct. 18.

As host teams, Australia and New Zealand are the only two teams to have earned automatic qualification, with their slots being taken directly from the quotas allocated to their federations, the AFC and OFC.

The 2022 CONCACAF W Championship (CONCACAF) is set to begin February 16, 2022 and conclude July 24, 2022. In total, 32 teams — including the USWNT and the reigning Olympic champions, Canada — will compete in the CONCACAF Championship, which announced a revamping of the tournament in August. Both the USWNT and Canada have already automatically qualified for the final stage of the championship.

The 2022 Copa América Femenina (CONMEBOL) will begin on July 8, 2022 and conclude on July 30, 2022 with three direct slots. Two teams that don’t receive direct qualification will advance to the playoffs.

The 2022 OFC Women’s Nations Cup (OFC) will begin on July 5, 2022 and end on July 31, 2022. With one direct slot already being taken by New Zealand, that leaves one playoff spot for the remaining 10 teams.

The 2023 UEFA FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification, set to conclude on October 11, 2022, has 11 total slots allocated as well as one playoff spot. So far, no teams have been eliminated from the 51 competing.

The inter-confederation playoffs will determine the final three qualification spots for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The playoff tournament, running from February 17th to the 23rd in 2023, will be used as a test event for Australia and New Zealand to host prior to the Women’s World Cup. Ten teams will be split into three groups, with the winner of each qualifying for the World Cup. Australia and New Zealand will also participate in friendlies against teams in two of the groups.

In total, 32 teams will qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup, up from 24 in 2019.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.