Excitement is once again building around the country ahead of the 2023 Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The England Lionesses was successful in the last major tournament when winning Euro 2022, but can they now do it on the world stage? Also, many want to know how they can watch it, and we'll provide all the info you need.
With the competition taking place on the other side of the world, many fans of the women's game will be quickly looking towards the TV schedule to see when and where they can watch their heroes take to the field once again. It was only decided quite recently regards to FIFA allowing TV rights to be broadcast in certain areas after a disagreement over bidding fees.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino felt broadcasters from the UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France simply did not offer enough money to warrant showing the matches, with Infantino feeling the tournament should be worth the type of finance that would be offered to show Men's World Cup football.
According to Infantino (quotes through BBC Sport), broadcasters offered between $1million and $10million for the TV rights, and with the male equivalent World Cup being priced at between $100million and $200million, he felt accepting this much lower offer in comparison wouldn't be morally right and wasn't prepared to undersell.
However, the fact this has only be resolved five weeks before the tournament began is certainly cutting it fine, but Women's World Cup followers can rest easy knowing they'll be women's football to watch over the coming weeks.
Let us reveal what we know so far regarding to the TV schedule around the 2023 Women's Cup World. As a word of caution, there will obviously be a big time difference given this will be taking place in Australia and New Zealand. Australia are ten hours ahead of UK time, and New Zealand is 12 hours.
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2023 Women's World Cup: UK coverage
In the UK, the BBC and ITV have won the rights to showcase 2023 Women's World Cup football for its viewers.
The matches will be split between the two channels for the group stage between the channels. The first match to be shown on BBC will be the clash between New Zealand v Norway on 20th July 2023 at 08:00am UK time. For ITV, their opening showing will be joint-hosts Australia taking of Republic of Ireland on the same day at 11:00am UK time.
At the BBC, TV hosting duties will fall between Laura Woods, Reshmin Chowdhury and Alex Scott, with pundits including Steph Houghton, Ellen White, Jonas Eidevall and Rachel Brown-Finnis, amongst others.
2023 Women's World Cup: Irish coverage
Within Ireland, RTÉ will be providing coverage throughout the tournament from start to finish. Every match will be available in some format on the platform, including online on the RTÉ Player and of course on television itself.
New Zealand against Norway on 20th July will be the first coverage that the channel will provide, and it will be an early morning for everyone in Ireland as kick-off will be 8am.
Evanne Ní Chuillin, Peter Collins, Clare MacNamara and Marie Crowe will split presenting duties across RTÉ, with a particular focus towards the Republic of Ireland Women's team.
2023 Women's World Cup: Knockout rounds
The TV allocation for the knockout stages will be decided on a round-by-round basis between BBC and ITV as to which game will be staged on which channel. That is with the exception of the final on 20th August 2023, which shall be shown on both channels at the same time. In Ireland, RTÉ will be showing every single match throughout the competition.
One thing is for sure, the 2023 Women's World Cup promises to be a memorable one for us all, and just one very lucky team shall emerge victorious come the end of the grueling competition. Can England make it back-to-back victories in major competition? Some key injuries not being in the squad named by Sarina Wiegman could possibly squander their chances.
Vera Pauw has also revealed the list of names called up to the Ireland squad, do they have what it takes to cause a shock on the world stage? She guided the nation to their first-ever major tournament in the women's game.
