UEFA Women's Euro 2022


The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national teams of Europe. It was the second edition since it was expanded to 16 teams. The tournament was hosted by England, and was originally scheduled to take place from 7 July to 1 August 2021. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe in early 2020 resulted in postponements of the 2020 Summer Olympics and UEFA Euro 2020 to summer 2021, so the tournament was rescheduled for 6 to 31 July 2022 – unlike some other major tournaments which were similarly delayed, it was also re-titled. England last hosted the tournament in 2005, which had been the final tournament to feature just eight teams.
Defending champions Netherlands, who won UEFA Women's Euro 2017 as hosts, were eliminated in the quarter-finals by France. Hosts England won their first UEFA Women's Championship title by beating Germany 2–1 after extra time in the final, held at Wembley Stadium in London. As winners, they competed in the inaugural 2023 Women's Finalissima against Brazil, winners of the 2022 Copa América Femenina, claiming the title via a penalty shootout.
The video assistant referee, as well as goal-line technology, were used in the final tournament.

Host selection

England were the only country to submit a bid before the deadline. Hungary and Austria had previously announced interest in submitting bids to host. England were confirmed as hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on 3 December 2018. They had previously hosted the Women's Euro in 2005, described as a watershed in terms of developing the sport, with stadium and television audiences having exceeded expectations.
A January 2022 study debated the benefits of England hosting Euro 2022 in terms of sports tourism – though mainly for the men's game, England was already a global hub for football – or for the improvements major sporting events can bring to a host, as no new stadiums or infrastructure would be required in the nation; it suggested that the hosts "intended to leverage further the development of the women's game in England and enhance the country's image as one of the main hubs of women's football."

Qualification

A total of 48 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts England qualifying automatically, the other 47 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament. In a change from previous qualifying competitions, the preliminary round had been abolished and all entrants started from the qualifying group stage. The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:
  • Qualifying group stage: The 47 teams were drawn into nine groups: two groups of six teams and seven groups of five teams. Each group was played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners and the three best runners-up qualified directly for the final tournament, while the remaining six runners-up advanced to the play-offs.
  • Play-offs: The six teams were drawn into three ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last three qualified teams.
The draw for the qualifying group stage was held on 21 February 2019 in Nyon. The qualifying group stage took place from August 2019 to December 2020, while the play-offs took place in April 2021, previously scheduled for October 2020.

Qualified teams

In February 2022, the Russian team was suspended following their country's invasion of Ukraine. UEFA later announced on 2 May 2022 that Russian teams were banned from every European competition, disqualifying Russia from the Women's Euro 2022. Portugal, whom Russia defeated in the play-offs, would take part instead.
14 of the 16 qualified teams had also taken part in the 2017 edition. Northern Ireland was the only team to make its debut at the 2022 finals. Finland meanwhile returned after missing the previous tournament. Scotland was the only team present in 2017 that failed to qualify for these finals apart from the banned Russia.
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
OrderTeamMethod of
qualification		Date of
qualification		Finals
appearance		Last
appearance		Previous best
performance		FIFA ranking
at start of draw
13 12 20189th2017 8th
22017 3rd
32017 4th
42017 15th
52017 12th
62017 2nd
72017 5th
82017 19th
92017 16th
102017 10th
112013 25th
122017 21st
132017 14th
–qualifying play-offs winner2017 24th
14qualifying play-offs winner2017 20th
15qualifying play-offs winner—Debut48th
16qualifying play-offs lucky loser2017 30th

;Notes

Final draw

The final draw took place in Manchester, England, on 28 October 2021 at 18:00 CEST.
It was originally set on 6 November 2020, but had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The hosts were assigned to position A1 in the draw while the other teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:
Team
41,4433
43,9611
41,9242
40,8984

Team
35,2659
34,95110
33,69311
33,69312

;Notes

Venues

in Nottingham and London Road in Peterborough were initially included on the list of stadiums when the Football Association submitted the bid to host the tournament. These were changed with the City Ground in Nottingham and St Mary's in Southampton due to UEFA requirements. The City Ground was replaced by Leigh Sports Village when the final list of venues was confirmed in August 2019. On 23 February 2020, Old Trafford in Trafford was confirmed as the venue of the opening match featuring England, with Wembley Stadium to host the final. For Euro 2022, UEFA announced 10 venues. For commercial reasons, Falmer Stadium changed its name for the tournament.
The announcement of hosting plans in 2019 drew criticism from The Guardian, which noted that the bid had emphasised the use of Wembley Stadium, while the plan was only to use it for the final. It and others also criticised that though the tournament would use stadiums in different parts of the country, none were in the North East. This geographical concern was also a main subject of negative reactions on social media. A 2019 study noted that women's football had developed greatly following the 2005 Euro in the North West region in which it had been held, with a 2020 study noting that the North East was a prominent location for women's football. A lack of stadiums chosen in the Midlands also saw criticism closer to the tournament.
Stadium size was also criticised, with major complaints coming from Iceland's Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir; the 7,000 capacity Academy Stadium being the main focus, which would be limited to 4,700 capacity for the tournament due to UEFA restrictions preventing the use of standing capacity. The decision to include the stadium was labelled "embarrassing" and "disrespectful", and did not reflect the growth of women's football. The Leigh Sports Village would also be restricted to 8,100 instead of its typical 12,000 capacity due to the same restrictions.

Match officials

On 19 April 2022, UEFA announced the selected match officials for the tournament. On 27 April, Belgian official Ella De Vries was added as an assistant VAR.

Referees