Five years after staging the FIFA World Cup finals, Germany will host the women's equivalent in 2011 and the first European qualifier is played on Saturday.
Iceland opener
Most of the 41 hopefuls start their campaigns in September or October but Iceland and Serbia go head to head in Reykjavik at the weekend to kick off Group 1. Iceland, in fact, have another final tournament to play later this month when they kick off their UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ bid on 24 August against France, who are also in their World Cup qualifying group.
Play-offs
The World Cup qualifying group stage continues until 25 August 2010, when the eight section winners will progress to the play-offs on 11/12 and 15/16 September. The four victors will join hosts and holders Germany, bidding for a third straight World Cup victory, while the defeated sides will then compete in another play-off for a chance to meet a team from the CONCACAF region for a further place in the finals which take place from 26 June until 17 July 2011.
Hopefuls
Among those aiming for places are 1995 winners Norway and fellow 2007 qualifiers Denmark, England and Sweden. Along with that quartet, plus Germany, France and Iceland, five other sides will compete at UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ before beginning World Cup bids: Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Ukraine. More details on the 2011 World Cup finals can be seen on FIFA's official website here.
2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying
Group 1 (UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ finalists in bold) | | France | | Iceland | | Serbia | | Northern Ireland | | Croatia | | Estonia |
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| Group 2 | | Norway | | Netherlands | | Belarus | | Slovakia | | F.Y.R. Macedonia |
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| Group 3 | | Denmark | | Scotland | | Greece | | Bulgaria | | Georgia |
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| Group 4 | | Ukraine | | Poland | | Hungary | | Romania | | Bosnia-Herzegovina |
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| Group 5 | | England | | Spain | | Austria | | Turkey | | Malta |
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| Group 6 | | Russia | | Republic of Ireland | | Switzerland | | Israel | | Kazakhstan |
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| Group 7 | | Italy | | Finland | | Portugal | | Slovenia | | Armenia |
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| Group 8 | | Sweden | | Czech Republic | | Belgium | | Wales | | Azerbaijan |
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Germany will stage the finals in 2011 (©Getty Images)
