THE Filipinas, the national women’s football team, will find out what teams they will face in the group stage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup tomorrow when the International Football Federations holds the draw for the prestigious tournament in a star-studded gala event at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.
Two-time American World Cup champion Carli Lloyd and British CNN sports anchor Amanda Davies will host the program starting at 7:30 p.m. (2:30 p.m. in Manila) that will determine what teams will make up the eight groups in the 32-nation global football showcase for women.
Expected to be present during the draw to be graced by Swiss FIFA President Giovanni Infantino are Philippine Football Federation President Mariano Araneta Jr., general secretary Atty. Ed Gastanes and national women’s team manager Jefferson Cheng.
Ranked No. 53 in the latest FIFA women’s world ratings, the Filipinas are in pot 4 together with Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, and Zambia, plus the three qualifiers in the 10-nation playoff tournament scheduled from Feb. 17 to 23 in New Zealand.
The ninth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup will be held from July 20 to Aug. 20 to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
As joint hosts, New Zealand and Australia were given pre-assigned differed colored balls labelled A1 and B1, respectively.
Based on the draw guidelines issued by the world football body known by its French acronym FIFA, there will be eight balls with the name of each country that qualified for the quadrennial competition in the four pots.
The eight pots representing the groups are labelled A to H, and within each pot there are four balls numbered 1 to 4 for each respective group.
