We also preview the Quarterfinals for the 2024-25 Asian Women’s Champions League, which take place later this month. Finally, we look at CONCACAF nation Belize—in Central America—in which a 24-year-old women’s national team player is coaching a first division men’s team and we look at their local league and national team for the women.
FIFA future WWC hosting decisions puts the U.S. in the favorites position to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup and the United Kingdom for 2035
On March 5, 2025, FIFA made it a virtual lock for the U.S.—or the U.S. and Mexico in a joint bid—to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup when they declared that only nations from CAF (Confederation of African Football) or CONCACAF would be eligible to bid for the 2031 tournament. For 2035, only CAF again and UEFA nations can bid, with England/United Kingdom immediately favored, after previously saying that they would bid for the 2031 tourney. China had shown interest in the 2031 games, but with an unstated three WWC cycle gap between individual confederations hosting (2023 involved Australia from the AFC and New Zealand from Oceania), China would be an early possibility for 2039, but that award is likely close to a decade away and things could change mightily before then.
U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone, a former WWC winner as a player, said after FIFA’s announcement that the U.S. will bid for the 2031 tournament: “And we’re going to win it.” The U.K.’s four national associations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) also said that they would bid for 2035.
The U.S. and Mexico had joined the bidding for the 2027 Women’s World Cup, but withdrew just weeks before the FIFA vote, with a bid that utilized virtually the same stadiums as for the 2026 men’s World Cup. Just a few weeks before the vote, the U.S./Mexico bid committee stepped out of the process and Brazil became an unlikely favorite over a joint bid by Belgium/Netherlands/Germany, which would have involved three nations’ associations in the logistics process leading up to the tournament. Brazil ultimately defeated the Northern Europe bid in a vote of FIFA Associations 119-78.
For 2031 from CAF, Morocco and South Africa have both indicated that they will submit bids. On the men’s side, Morocco has lost to the U.S. for the 1994 and 2026 bids and it seems likely to be the same for the women’s bid as a North American effort will be able to almost guarantee record revenues and sold out American Football Stadiums for the vast majority of games—particularly if they are held as doubleheaders as was done for the Finals in the U.S. in 1999 and 2003, where the U.S. stepped in late for China due to the SARS pandemic. Since CONCACAF nations cannot bid for the 2035 games (only CAF and UEFA), again all signs point to a U.S. event for 2031, which could include Mexico again, which would help to grow the women’s game there and particularly be a boost to Liga MX Femenil in the future. Since 2003, the tournament hosts have been China, Germany, Canada, France and Australia-New Zealand.
The U.S. is also hosting the 2025 men’s Club World Cup, the 2026 men’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles—including men’s and women’s football. Cone said: “These tournaments will generate significant economic impact, enabling further investments into our game, and into communities, your communities, across America.”
Women’s Club World Cup Announcement
Also on March 4, FIFA announced that a Women’s Club World Cup — which FIFA President Gianni Infantino previously said would launch in January 2026 — will be delayed until 2028. The tournament is expected to be competitive with strong women’s club teams in Europe, Asia and North and South America, compared to the men’s side, where teams from Europe have long dominated. Infantino explained: “The FIFA Women’s Club World Cup will be a defining moment in the growth of women’s club football, giving the world’s top clubs the platform they deserve to compete against the best and put the women’s club game in the global spotlight. Following extensive consultation with key stakeholders, the inaugural edition will take place in 2028 and will feature a total of 19 clubs, allowing for a competitive and an inclusive format based on the sporting merit accumulated at (the) global level through the new FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in the previous two years.”
Six clubs representing the AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, the OFC and UEFA will take part in the play-in stage. The three winners will advance to the group stage and join 13 other clubs. The AFC, CAF, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL will each have two direct slots, while UEFA will have five assured berths in the finals. The group stage will feature four groups of four, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the knockout stage. All matches – from the play-in stage to the final – will be held at a neutral venue to be determined by FIFA in the future.
We have to ask, is this another event bound for America? With interest in women’s football growing around the world, one of the European top five (England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain) would be a good host as well as Japan, Australia and even China from the AFC. The seedings for the 2032 edition will be decided at a later date, taking into account the results and performances of clubs in all competitions played in previous years. This tournament will have a four year cycle between events, mirroring the Men’s and Women’s World Cups for national teams.
FIFA first announced its intention to host a new 16-team tournament between January and February of 2026 after a meeting of its 37 member council in Bangkok, Thailand in May of 2025. At the time, Infantino was asking men’s clubs to start women’s teams: “To this date, we don’t have a global club competition for women. Yet we are asking (men’s) clubs to form women’s clubs all over the world.”
This two-year delay is not a surprise as there have been few details announced on the logistics, hosting or commercial and broadcast deals for this new global club championship. A number of groups, including clubs, confederations, leagues and the players’ union, had petitioned for a delay at least to 2027 to provide more time to develop all aspects of this new event. This full club Finals will now be held in 2028 but FIFA, in the interim, will create a smaller women’s club championship that will launch in 2026 (see below).
With this news for the 2028 Women’s Club World Cup, there are still concerns such as what the total budget will be as well as the expenses for the teams and renumeration for the players participating, though we assume that the qualification stages before the final tournament of 16/19 would be born by the six confederations. Also, who will host and will they be able to attract crowds and sponsors to at least be a qualitative success if not finishing on the financial plus side? Also, will FIFA dedicate resources to build this like they have with the Women’s World Cup tournament?
In the interim, FIFA also said it would launch in 2026 a smaller “Women’s Champions Cup” with the champions of the six confederations from the previous season, similar to the former men’s Club World Cup involving Confederation Club Champions and a host side. That tournament will be held annually in non-Club World Cup years. The format for the first edition in 2026 will be as follows: The preliminary stage will consist of the AFC champions first hosting the OFC champions in round 1, with the winner visiting the CAF champions in round 2. The winners of round 2 will progress to the semi-finals to face the UEFA champions, while the CONCACAF champions will play the CONMEBOL champions. For the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2026 qualification timeline, continental club competition finals will be determined on:
AFC Women’s Champions League: 24 May 2025
CAF Women’s Champions League: 23 November 2025
CONCACAF W Champions Cup: 24 May 2025
CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina: 18 October 2025
OFC Women’s Champions League: 17 May 2025
UEFA Women’s Champions League: 24 May 2025
The Final Four, comprising the semi-finals, the third-place play-off and the final, will take place on the following dates, at yet to be determined sites:
FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2026: 28 January 2026 to 1 February 2026
FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2027: 27 January to 31 January 2027
FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2029: 24 January to 28 January 2029
It is anticipated that the decisions on the hosts of the respective competitions will be taken at the 76th FIFA Congress in Quarter 2 of 2026.
Other upcoming events on the women’s football calendar in 2025 are the U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco from October 17 to November 8 and the inaugural Futsal Women’s World Cup in Philippines from November 21 to December 7. In 2026, the FIFA U-20 WWC will be held in Poland from September 5-27.
First Ever Game between a USL Super League and NWSL side
In an historic first ever game between a NWSL team and USL Super League side, the Tampa Bay Sun hosted the NJ/NY Gotham FC in a friendly on March 2 in Tampa. The game ended 1-1 but Gotham won on penalty kicks 4-2. Matches within the USL Super League end with a draw if the game is tied at the end of regulation. Since this was an exhibition match, with mutual agreement from the teams, they finished the 90 minutes with a penalty kick session to decide a winner.
Gotham FC took an early third minute lead with a goal from Brazilian international Gabi Portilho (29), who joined Gotham from Corinthians of Brazil and won a Silver Medal in the 2024 Olympics. Parker Goins (26), who played at the University of Arkansas and spent three seasons with Racing Louisville of the NWSL, scored in the 15th minute for the Sun from a telling assist by English youth international Natasha Flint (28). The lineups were as follows:
Gotham FC: 1 - Shelby Hogan (GK) (78’ 12 - Ryan Campbell); 22 - Mandy Freeman (C) (79’ 99 - Olivia Athens), 14 - Nealy Martin (79’ 25 - Kristina Maksuti), 27 - Jess Carter (46’ 5 - Cece Kizer), 3 - Bruninha (79’ 62 - Emerson Elgin); 8 - Taryn Torres (79’ 65 - Grace Murray), 7 - Jaelin Howell (79’ 90 - Stella Nyamekye), 11 - Sarah Schupansky (65’ 21 - Sofia Cook); 18 - Gabi Portilho (66’ 20 - Jéssica Silva), 9 - Esther González (46’ 34 - Khyah Harper), 13 - Ella Stevens (65’ 17 - Mak Whitham)
Head coach: Juan Carlos Amorós
Tampa Bay Sun FC: 28 - Ashley Orkus (GK); 4 - Vivianne Bessette (46’ 3 - Bri Blethen), 15 - Brooke Hendrix (46’ 2 - Jackie Simpson), 22 - Paige Almendariz (46’ 32 - Aaliyah Pitts); 20 - Victoria Haugen (42’ 37 - Jordan Zade), 5 - Jordyn Listro (C) (46’ 6 - Wasila Diwura-Soale), 19 - Carlee Giammona (46’ 29 - Andrea Hauksdottir), 12 - Jade Moore (46’ 7 - Erika Tymrak), 35 - Sydny Nasello (46’ 24 - Ashley Clark); 9 - Natasha Flint (46’ 45 - Ava Tankersley), 11 - Parker Goins (46’ 13 - Cecilie Fløe Nielsen) (65’ 21 - Dominique Richardson)
Head coach: Denise Schilte-Brown
2025 NWSL Challenge Cup
On March 7, in the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup final, the Orlando Pride lost to the Washington Spirit 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 tie at the Pride’s Inter&Co Stadium. The Pride’s Brazilian international defender Rafaelle (33)—in her third season with the club—returned to the field after being taken off the Season Ending Injury List earlier in the week and scored the opening goal of the match four minutes before halftime. Fellow Brazilian international Marta took a free kick but it was deflected by a Spirit defender, which came to Rafaelle who shot it home.
Colombian international Leicy Santos (28), in her second season with the Spirit, tied up the game in the 72nd minute from a free kick, curling the ball into the right corner of the net past the Pride’s English international pool goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse. New Zambian international signing Prisca Chilufya made her first Pride appearance. She played the past two seasons with Juarez in Liga MX Femenil, scoring 14 goals in 48 games and signed a three year contract with the Pride. The Pride led in ball possession, (52% vs. 48%) and for shots (13 vs. 9), while D.C. led in fouls (18 vs. 12).
After the game, Orlando head coach Seb Hines said: “Football is a cruel game, losing in penalties is never nice. I thought we did really well throughout the game. I thought our presses looked really good and we had some good opportunities, but again we have to take into consideration this is the first game of the year and it’s a Final, and obviously you want to win every game, but I think it’s always hard losing a Final and (not lifting) a trophy, but I think it’s going to help us have that hunger to continue to start where we left off from last year (NWSL Shield regular season and NWSL Championship title winners.)”
The Pride started nine of the same players that started in the 2024 NWSL Championship match that was also played against the Washington Spirit. Changes included U.S. international midfielder Morgan Gautrat for Adriana of Brazil, who joined Al Qadsiah of Saudi Arabia (see our column last month: The Week in Women's Football: Cohen chat as Denver welcomed to NWSL; examining Russian Superliga; Al Qadsiah spend big on Adriana - TribalFootball.com) and Rafaelle of Brazil (see above) in place of American Coriana Dyke.
2025 Challenge Cup Lineups/Substitutions
Orlando Pride − GK Anna Moorhouse; D Emily Sams, Rafaelle (Julie Doyle 45’), Kylie Nadaner, Kerry Abello; M Morgan Gautrat (Ally Lemos 66’), Haley McCutcheon, Angelina; F Marta (c), Ally Watt (Summer Yates 82’), Barbra Banda (Prisca Chilufya 82’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK McKinley Crone; D Bri Martinez, Zara Chavoshi; M Viviana Villacorta; F Grace Chanda
Washington Spirit – GK Aubrey Kingsbury; D Gabrielle Carle, Tara McKeown, Esme Morgan, Casey Krueger; M Narumi Miura, Hal Hershfelt, Leicy Santos; F Chloe Ricketts (Rebeca Bernal 61’), Ashley Hatch, Brittany Ratcliffe (Makenna Morris 61’)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Sandy MacIver; M Meg Boade; F Kiley Dulaney, Trinity Rodman, Margie Detrizio
End-of-Regulations Shootout:
ORL – Julie Doyle (Goal)
WAS – Ashley Hatch (Goal)
ORL – Angelina (Goal)
WAS – Rebeca Bernal (Goal)
ORL – Summer Yates (Miss)
WAS – Narumi Muira (Goal)
ORL – Ally Lemos (Save)
WAS – Tara McKeown (Goal)
The 2024 and 2025 Challenge Cups were one game affairs between the league Championship winners and Shield (regular season) winners, after being held with all the teams in groups and then finals, except for the inaugural version in 2020 during COVID, which was held in Utah and replaced a regular season. Since Orlando won both titles in 2024, the Spirit was selected as they finished second in the 2024 regular season and playoffs.
Past Challenge Cup winners:
2020 Houston Dash
2021 Portland Thorns
2022 NC Courage
2023 NC Courage
2024 San Diego Wave
2025 AFC Women’s Champions League Quarterfinals Preview
We preview the four ties for the AFC Women’s Champions League Quarterfinals in the first season of the expanded tournament, which will be held on March 22 and 23, in a single match. The semifinals will be held on May 21 with the Final match three days later. We also project the teams who will advance to the Semifinals and our projections for the scoreline.
We update our previous looks at the imports on each team and the results from the preliminary round and group stage from this competition when it started for the 2024-25 season: see The Week in Women's Football: NWSL (& Tribalfootball) welcome new signings; AFC Club Championship review - TribalFootball.com and The Week in Women's Football: Review of AFC Champions League; exclusive with Cloepfil about new book - TribalFootball.com); we have a few new additions from outside the team’s countries from the previous rounds.
Incheon Red Angels of Korea Republic vs. Bam Khatoon of Iran
Our projection: Incheon advances 6-1.
Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam vs Abu Dhabi CC
West Asia is traditionally viewed as weak in women’s football due to past prejudices and a lack of resources. Abu Dhabi CC, long a standard at the club level in the region, has seven imports. We think this will be the upset of the Quarterfinals with Abu Dhabi and Ho Chi Minh City drawing 2-2, with the UAE side advancing 4-2 on penalties.
Ho Chi Minh is down to two Americans after Meghan Root (24) has departed the club, leaving Talani Barnett (24) of the U.S. and midfielder Tatiana Mason (25) with the side.
Abu Dhabi still has six imports from Ghana, and one each from Algeria, Brazil, Nepal and Ukraine, along with a new signing from Japan in forward Nanami Sone (25), who played two seasons at home in the WE League with JEF United before joining Young Elephants SC in Vientiane, Laos for a short spell, where they lost 2-1 to Abu Dhabi CC in the qualification round last August.
Melbourne City vs Taichung Blue Whale
Melbourne City is undefeated heading into the final four games of the 2024-25 A-League Women season and should easily dispatch the Chinese Taipei side in Melbourne; we are projecting an 8-0 quarterfinal scoreline. We examined some of City’s imports in our A-League Women preview at the end of 2024 (see: The Week in Women's Football: A-League preview P1; signings, sales and predictions - TribalFootball.com), including new signings for this season including Spanish goalkeeper Malena Mieres (24), who has played in all but one A-League Women regular season matches, and American-born imports Mariana Speckmaier (27)—a Venezuelan international—and Lourdes Bosch (23), and returning American defender Taylor Otto (27).
Canadian Kathryn Harvey (27) joined City for the 2024-25 season from AaB of Denmark. Harvey has scored three goals in 15 regular season matches this season, including two in her debut game to open the season, a 5-2 win over Perth. She played at Trinity Western University in suburban Vancouver B.C. after playing lacrosse for one season at the University of Long Island-Brooklyn in New York. She also spent a short spell in 2024 with Fatih Vatan S.K. of Turkey.
New Zealand international defender Rebecka Stott (31) is in her eighth season with Melbourne City in multiple stints and has started in all of her 15 appearances this season; she has won five A-League women titles—four with City and one with city rivals Melbourne Victory. She has 100 caps with the Football Ferns after being capped by Australia at the youth level. She has also played in the NWSL, in England, Germany and Norway.
Tyla-Jay Vlajnic is a full international for Serbia and played in last month’s Nations League matches (see: The Week in Women's Football: Reviewing UEFA Nations League; examining Armenia squad - TribalFootball.com). She was born in Australia and started playing with Serbia in 2020. She has also played with the Seattle Sounders Women in the WPSL amateur league and with Spartak Subotica in Serbia. She is also in her eighth season with Melbourne City and won four A-League titles with the club.
Urawa Reds of Japan vs. Wuhan Jiangda of China
The Reds of suburban Tokyo, who’s men’s team is in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Finals this summer in the U.S., should advance (4-2) as Japan arguably has the most competitive club league in Asia, in part a result of their strong national teams’ development program.
A look at women’s football in Belize
Jon Arnold, the publisher of the excellent media site Getting CONCACAFED, recently profiled a 24-year-old female—Ada Cordova—in Belize who is the head coach of the San Pedro Pirates men’s side in Brazil’s first division. (San Pedro is the main city on Amergris Caye, the nation’s largest island and a tourist destination—Belize is an English-speaking nation and a former colony of the U.K., with a population of 400,000 and is located on the Caribbean Sea, south of Mexico.) Karol Maldonado Claros, the Pirates’ club president who was selected as a female Executive Member of the Premier League of Belize, a semi-professional league, in 2022, explained her hiring of Cordova, who recently completed her CONCACAF B License, with a short answer: “Why not?” She went on to ask any questioners about Cordova, who has a senior coaching license in the country: “Isn’t she the most prepared coach—not male or female—but isn’t she in general the most prepared coach on the island? Their answer is yes.”
Cordova played in the midfield for the Belize Women’s National Team but turned to coaching after sustaining an injury. She may return to playing with the nationals but currently her focus is on coaching and blazing a trail for future coaches: “In Belize, we have a tendency that you go and work for your license and after you receive your license, you don’t do anything with it. You don’t coach any youth teams; you don’t help high school teams. I want to change that culture we have and actually put the license to work. What greater opportunity (is there) than coaching a team from my home, the San Pedro Pirates? It’s amazing.”
Cordova explained her coaching philosophy: “I’ve always believed I should not only focus on making great players but also great citizens. Overall, I want the team to be more united, work as a team. We have different players from different districts in Belize, and every player brings a different playing style, but we want to sing the same song in the Pirates. I like to play possession football. We’re trying to play that style, play more possession football and recognize when we can move forward as a team.”
The Pirates’ academy has more than 100 children, but only a few—men and women—have made national teams at the youth or senior level. Cordova wants to turn the island into a soccer powerhouse. The Pirates must take a boat and then a bus to their road games on the mainland—flying is an option but also is prohibitively expensive. The Pirates currently sit fourth in the six-team league with 10 points from a 2-2-4 (W-D-L record in the Closing Championship) and their hopes of playing in the Central American Cup as Belize’s champions—based on aggregate success in the Opening and Closing tournaments—maybe be an unrealistic goal this year as leader Port Layola has a 14 point advantage to date.
The Premier Women’s League of Belize’s second season started on March 15, 2025 with four teams, down from seven in its inaugural season of 2024. The quartet for 2025 come from only two of Belize’s six districts—Cayo and Stann Creek—including: Jewel Fury and Napoles from the capital city of Belmopan (the smallest capital city in the Americas with about 20,000 residents), Cayo Dreamers from San Ignacio, and the Sagitun GIRLZ from Independence. There are no teams from the northern Corozal and Orange Walk districts, the southernmost Toledo district, or the Belize district.
There is also no team from Dangriga, the main population center of the Stann Creek District. Dangrigan side Wagiya Sporting Club United, which competed in the National Amateur Women’s League that preceded the PWLB, didn’t field a team last season nor are they participating in 2025. Cayo Dreamers are new for 2025, coming up from the National Amateur Women’s League. 2024 teams who have not returned are: Caribbean Tire FC, Old Capital Turf Warriors, and Rising Phoenix FC. Last season, Jewel Fury won the title, defeating Sagitun GIRLZ 2-0 in the final last August. This season, the teams will play a double round-robin regular season and then will all proceed to the semifinals, beginning on May 17, in home and away leg playoffs.
The Belize WNT has been competitive in the recent W Gold Cup Qualification League C matches in Group A in 2023, finishing as group winners with six wins over Aruba. Bonaire and Turks and Caicos. In 2024, Belize split a friendly series at home in Belmopan against Bermuda (2-0, 0-2) in mid-July and then lost a two match friendly set the next month against Cuba in Havana (2-0, 1-0). Most of their squad are based with clubs in Belize, with a few diaspora from the U.S. Khalydia Velasquez (18) plays for Jewel Fury FC in Belize and has five goals in eight caps. She has the FIFA record as the youngest ever international scorer at age 11 in a FIFA sanctioned international tournament. She has been active in 2025 with Belize’s U-20 WWC team in regional qualifying.
Among the diaspora from America has been defender Mikhaila Bowden (31), who has scored six goals in 10 internationals and played collegiately at Boise State University in Idaho. Bowden works in the engineering field as a project coordinator in California. She played in New Zealand with Southern United FC in Dunedin and in Australia’s WNPL for a season; she also trialed with A-League Women’s sides and now plays with amateur teams at home. Others based in America include North Carolina high-school midfielder Abbi Calvio and teenage midfielder Ella Heron of youth club FC Prime in Florida.
Forward Jayda Brown (25) has played in Poland’s top league, the Ekstraliga, with Stomilanki Olsztyn and Gornik Leczna. She was born in Atlanta and played at Campbellsville University in the small college NAIA in Kentucky and with Rochester FC in Minnesota in the summer W League. Thus far in the 2024-25 season in Poland, Stomilanki Olsztyn is in 10th place in the 12 team league with a 2-3-8 record for 9 points, but well ahead of the two relegation places held by Resovia Rzeszow (4 points) and Skra Czestochowa (3) points, who have one win and four ties between them in their 25 games combined.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey