We’ve had another landmark year for women’s football in 2023 — more record attendances, more prominence on television and, above anything else, a truly fantastic World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

While much of the progress in the women’s game over the last half-decade has been concentrated in wealthy Western countries, a notable feature of this World Cup was the improved performance of the outsiders.

First-time qualifiers the Philippines defeated New Zealand. Fellow debutants Haiti played some of the most exciting counter-attacking football in the tournament. Jamaica, meanwhile, recorded draws against both France and Brazil and reached the knockout stage for the first time.

“People expected really lopsided scores,” said Jill Ellis, who won the Women’s World Cup as manager of the United States in 2015 and 2019. “But we saw competitive games. People have asked me, ‘What’s your most inspirational moment?’. For me, it’s Morocco getting to the knockout round.”

The progress of the African nations was impossible to ignore.

Three of the four participants from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) advanced to the knockout phase. Nigeria shocked Australia to win 3-2 in Brisbane, one of the most memorable matches of the tournament. South Africa came from…

As the Women’s World Cup gets rolling this week in Australia and New Zealand, Morocco’s Nouhaila Benzina is set to make history. Not only is it her country’s first time qualifying for the competition, but the 25-year-old defender is expected to become the first player to compete on this stage while wearing a hijab.

If this tournament was being held in France, which staged the previous Women’s World Cup four years ago, however, she wouldn’t be able to do that.

A hijab is a headcover that covers a woman’s hair, worn by those who are of the Muslim faith. Three weeks ago, a court in France ruled in favour of the French Football Federation’s (FFF) decision to ban players who choose to wear the Islamic headscarf during matches.

The FFF isn’t the first sporting association to bar the hijab. World basketball’s governing body FIBA had a policy that did not permit any headgear — which included coverings such as hijabs and also the yarmulke, a skullcap worn by Orthodox Jewish men — but did away with it in 2017.

France has laws designed to protect its status as a secular country — known constitutionally as “laïcité” — but it is a sensitive issue that is viewed by some as a way to guarantee the religious neutrality of the state but by others as impinging on…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup gets under way in Australia and New Zealand on July 20, with the U.S. hoping to navigate an expanded 32-team tournament to become the first country to win football’s biggest prize three times in a row.

They are the favourites, but will the four-time winners actually pull off the ‘three-peat’? What of England, European champions but decimated by injuries to key players as they attempt to win the tournament for the first time? Will Germany bounce back from losing the final of the Euros to lift the game’s biggest prize?

How will the likes of France, Spain and Canada perform after their preparations have been disrupted by disputes with their federations over the past few months?

And can we expect any surprises from any of the eight countries — Haiti, Morocco, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia — making their World Cup debuts?

Our expert writers give their verdicts on what they think will happen over the next five weeks.

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Flo Lloyd-Hughes, women’s football reporter

Winner: Germany. This is a very open tournament and there are four or five teams that have a good chance of winning the title. Germany are often the masters of their own downfall, but given their disappointment at the Euros last summer and their…

Let’s start with a few fun facts. 

Asisat Oshoala has been African women’s footballer of the year five times. She has won the Africa Cup of Nations three times. She has two Golden Boots and two Golden Balls at international tournaments: two each at AFCON and the Under-20 World Cup. 

She was the top scorer in Spain in 2021-22 and last season, notched a personal-best 21 goals for Barcelona — accompanied by three assists, which was comfortably more than her team-mates.

In 2019, she became the first African woman to score in a Champions League final. Two years later she became the first African woman to win a Champions League title. A year after that, she became the first African woman to be nominated for the Ballon d’Or. 

We could go on. There will certainly be better players at this World Cup, but there won’t be many as exciting to watch, or indeed many with a more interesting career story, than Oshoala. 

Born in Ikorodu, a coastal city about an hour’s drive from the Nigerian capital Lagos, Oshoala wasn’t exactly encouraged to pursue her sporting dreams as a child. Her parents would frequently not give her any food if she disobeyed them and went to play football, considering it a waste of time. They wanted her to become a lawyer instead. 

But when she was…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup is almost here. It is the ninth iteration of the tournament and the biggest yet as, for the first time, 32 teams will compete for the trophy.

That means a new format with more matches and more players, as well as some new rules that have not been in operation before.

Here’s a primer ahead of the biggest women’s football tournament in history.

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The basics

What is the Women’s World Cup?

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international tournament that pits the best national sides against one another every four years.

Where is it being held?

The tournament is being played in Australia and New Zealand.

It is the first Women’s World Cup to be hosted across two countries and the first World Cup (regardless of gender) to be hosted across two confederations — Australia are part of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and New Zealand are part of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).

When is it?

The first two games of the tournament — New Zealand vs Norway and Australia vs Republic of Ireland — will be played on July 20.

The group stage will conclude with the final two games in Group H a fortnight later on August 3.

The knockout stage will begin on…