Expanded Women's World Cup good news for Ireland's hopes

The FIFA Council is understood to have voted on Friday to expand the competition from the 2031 finals onwards.

MORE TEAMS: Katie McCabe celebrates with teammates after scoring the Republic of Ireland's first goal during the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.

Ireland’s chances of returning to the Women’s World Cup in 2031 have been boosted by Fifa expanding the tournament to 48 teams.

The world governing body’s council is understood to have voted on Friday to expand the competition from the 2031 finals onwards.

That tournament is set to be awarded to the United States with support from other nations in the region.

Ireland, whose sole tournament appearance was their trip to Australia for the 2023 World Cup, begin their quest to reach the next showpiece next February.

However, they face a difficult task to reach Brazil in 2027, with only 11 European teams guaranteed to proceed for the 32-team event.

Ireland complete their Uefa Nations League campaign by taking on Turkey away on Friday, May 30 and Slovenia in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Tuesday, June 3.

They have summer friendlies lined up away to the world’s top seeds, USA, before what is likely to be Nations League playoffs consume their dates for the remainder of 2024.

This expansion does not come as a surprise, with bid documents for the 2031 and 2034 tournaments published in March mentioning the current 32-team format remained “subject to change”.

The UK is almost certain to host the 2035 finals after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said last month it was the only “valid bid” received.

A formal bid document must be formally submitted in November and evaluated, before a vote to rubberstamp by FIFA Congress in the second quarter of 2026.

The tournament only expanded to 32 teams from 16 in 2023.

There was scepticism over that decision but the finals in Australia and New Zealand threw up plenty of surprises and were very competitive, with only three of the 32 teams failing to register a point.

The decision means that from 2031 the Women's World Cup will feature the same number of teams as the men's finals, although there is a proposal from South America to expand the centenary finals in 2030 to 64 teams on a one-off basis, something UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin described last month as a “bad idea”.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has been a strong advocate for expanding the women's finals to 48 teams, while English Football Association president Mark Bullingham said last month the four national associations would be "really comfortable" if the finals were expanded to 48 teams.

That would likely require 16 venues, which Bullingham believes would allow the tournament to create more impact across the four nations.