The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 kicks off on 20 July and runs until August 20, 2023. The hosts for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 are Australia and New Zealand and I am excited to say that I will be going to two games – my first time going to a world cup match! My home town Melbourne is hosting a number of games so cannot wait for it to kick off – the vibe will be huge.
Since the 2010 FIFA World Cup we have been doing a flag activity and family sweep for the teams playing in the World Cups. It has been a great family activity and adds lots of interest to the World Cup even after Australia has been knocked out. We are doing it again this year and I have collated links for the flags of the teams playing in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 below. Before we move on to that I have also gathered some useful resources for you as well!
Resources for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023
- FIFA Digital Fan Guide for FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 – this gives you all the info you need to know about the games, the city hosting the games and the stadiums etc.
- FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ Match Schedule – who is playing who, where and when!
- Matildas: The World at Our Feet – this is a brilliant documentary series about the Australian soccer team. It follows the stories of players including global superstar Sam Kerr, Ellie Carpenter, Mary Fowler and others. You get a great insight into the hard work and sacrifices they’ve made to make the team and for the team to make it to the home World Cup. I really loved watching this and can highly recommend it.
- Matilda Sqaud – you can find the Matilda’s current squad listed here and click through to player profiles to find out more info about the Australian players.
- Do It Again by BENEE and Mallrat is the official song of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
- Beyond Greatness – Coins Celebrating FIFA Women – the Royal Australian Mint has crafted a collection of coins that conveys the essence of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023.
How the FIFA World Cup draw works
To set up the FIFA World Cup flag activity it helps to a basic understanding of how the FIFA World Cup works, so here is a very quick summary:
- There are 32 teams divided into 8 groups of 4.
- There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.
- The group stage involves a series of round-robin games within the group, with every team playing three games.
- The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage, which is known as the “round of 16”.
- At the round of 16, there are 8 elimination games played.
- The winners of the 8 games go through to the quarter-finals, where there are 4 matches.
- The winners of those games go through to the semi-finals, where there are 2 matches.
- The remaining 2 teams then play out in the World Cup Final.
FIFA Women’s World Cup Flags 2023 Activity
The above photo was for the Men’s World Cup last year. We have just started our colouring process for this year’s World Cup this week and will hopefully have it finished and up on the cupboards by the end of the weekend.
This is the group structure for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. You can click on each country to find a link to their flag. I have found that saving the flag file first and then printing them out works best.
| Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D |
| New Zealand | Australia | Spain | England |
| Norway | Republic of Ireland | Costa Rica | Haiti |
| Philippines | Nigeria | Zambia | Denmark |
| Switzerland | Canada | Japan | China PR |
| Group E | Group F | Group G | Group H |
| USA | France | Sweden | Germany |
| Vietnam | Jamaica | South Africa | Morocco |
| Netherlands | Brazil | Italy | Colombia |
| Portugal | Panama | Argentina | Korea Republic |
To set up this FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Flag Activity for the kids at home here is how it works:
- Print out the flags of all 32 participating countries. Have the kids colour the flags in the correct colours.
- We set them up in 8 groups of 4 flags. All flags will remain on the cupboards until the end of the group stage.
- Once we know which countries didn’t make it through to the round of 16, we will take their flags down.
- The teams that are eliminated in the knock out stage are then removed and we will be left with only 8 flags.
- At the end of the quarter finals another 4 will be removed.
- Then after the semi- finals it will be down to the last two, then of course only the winner is remaining.
Create your own family sweep
After the colouring activity is completed we will then set up family sweepstakes for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Previously we have written the names of all the teams on a list and my husband sorts them into groups based on their likelihood to make it through to the finals. We then were all allocated a number of teams for the World Cup, receiving a mix of teams with a decent chance and those who are unlikely to make it past the group stage.
We have now moved to a more complex structure based on the design of the youngest. He created a draft system for us. We now use the Wheel of Names website and these are the steps we took for 2022 and we will take this year:
- Added everyone’s names to the wheel.
- Went through one full round to allocate everyone a draft pick. When we did it last time for example, the eldest had first pick and I had the last pick. After each spin, we would remove the name of the person who won the spin.
- For the next seven picks, we then went in reverse order to even things out. So I had pick 8 and the eldest had pick 14.
- We then added everyone’s names back to the wheel and spun again, removing the names each time until we had no names left. We repeated this again so we had allocated 28 picks in total.
- We then added all the names back to the wheel for the last four spins (there are 32 teams so we needed to have 32 picks) but this time we left all the names on to give everyone a chance of winning some extra picks. Our daughter ended up winning two of the four picks.
- We then went into a trading period where if you wish you can trade your picks. The youngest tried to convince me to swap him my pick 7 & 8 for his pick 4 but I declined!
- We then chose our draft picks after dinner on a night when everyone was at home and we wrote them up so there was no confusion about who had which team. I have created a new table which you can download and use if you like too!
Then as the stages of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 progress, we will take down the flags of the countries which are knocked out. So we will start with 32 flags on our kitchen cupboards, then 16, then 8, then 4, then 2 and finally 1 once the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Final has been played.
We have simple prizes for our FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 activity for those who have the teams that come 1st, 2nd and 3rd and they are as follows:
- The person who has the winner of the World Cup is allowed to choose a family takeaway meal.
- The person who has the team which lost in the final is allowed to choose the dessert.
- The person who has the team that wins the 3 v 4 play off chooses the drinks for the meal.
We have a great time doing this and it is an activity that everyone can join in and enjoy. I gave set a minimum buy in of colouring in at least three flags if they want to be eligible to be in the sweep! Even if your team/s don’t make it to the finals you still get to have a takeaway dinner which doesn’t happen very often in our house so is something different.
Are you going to see any of the games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023?
You can find more of my posts on kids’ activities here.