World Cup preliminary round draw live on Thursday

Debutants Andorra and Kosovo are among 16 teams involved in the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup preliminary round draw streamed live from Nyon at 13:30CET on Thursday.

France gain automatic entry to the 24-team finals and while the 30 other highest-ranked sides in the UEFA Women’s National Team Coefficient Rankings progress straight to the qualifying group stage, the remaining 16 entrants must play in April for the remaining five berths. Those countries include Kosovo, entering their maiden women’s national-team event, and World Cup debutants Andorra.

Draw procedure

• The 16 teams have been split into four seeding categories based on their coefficients. Each group will contain one team from each seeding category.

• Albania, the Faroe Islands, Georgia and Lithuania have been appointed as mini-tournament hosts and will be drawn from a separate pot with one in each group, while maintaining their respective seeding positions.

• The four mini-tournaments will be played on 6, 8 and 11 April, with the section winners and the runner-up with the best record against the sides first and third in their section progressing to the qualifying group stage draw on 25 April.

©Domenic Aquilina

Georgia and the Faroe Islands will both host groups

Pots

Pot 1 (hosts)
Albania – seeding position 2
Faroe Islands – seeding position 2
Georgia – seeding position 3
Lithuania – seeding position 3

Pot 2 (seeding position 4)
Latvia
Luxembourg
Andorra
Kosovo

©Getty Images

Estonia faced England in UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 qualifying

Pot 3 (seeding position 3)
Malta
Montenegro

Pot 4 (seeding position 2)
Estonia
Moldova

Pot 5 (seeding position 1)
Turkey
Israel
Greece
Kazakhstan

Qualifying group stage

• The 35 teams will be drawn into seven groups of five, who will play home and away between September 2017 and September 2018. Other details, including seeding arrangements, will be confirmed ahead of April’s draw.

• The seven group winners will qualify to join hosts France in the finals.

• The four runners-up with the best record against the teams first, third and fourth in their groups will progress to the play-offs, which will consist of two rounds of two-legged knockout ties in October and November 2018 to decide Europe’s last qualifier.

Road to France: calendar

Preliminary round draw: 13:30CET, 19 January 2017, Nyon
Preliminary round: 6–11 April 2017
Qualifying group stage draw: 25 April 2017, Nyon
Qualifying group stage: 11 September 2017–4 September 2018
Play-off draw: tbc September 2018, Nyon
Play-off semi-finals: 1–9 October 2018
Play-off final: 5–13 November 2018
Finals draw: late 2018, France
Finals: summer 2019, France