Auckland (dpa) – Everyone is talking about the next World Cup in Qatar, but football will also be played under very special circumstances at the next World Cup – the women’s.

Before the group draw on Saturday, the DFB has long been busy with the organizationally demanding tournament which will take place in Australia and New Zealand in the winter of 2023 and could be held under the motto Miles & More: the long journey for most of the teams and the distances between the teams The places hardly allow for sustainable means of transport.

Large distances between sites

“We have checked the train and bus options. Unfortunately, this cannot be implemented,” Maika Fischer, manager of the German national team, says of the tournament. It is not yet known in which of the two host countries the DFB selection will play its preliminary round. In group matches, teams don’t have to leave New Zealand or Australia, but that doesn’t mean much: the distance between the Australian venues of Perth and Brisbane, for example, is more 3,600 kilometers.

The ninth Women’s World Cup will take place from July 20 to August 20, 2023 for the first time with 32 teams. The United States are the defending champions. Two-time world champions and current European runners-up Germany are one of eight group leaders in the draw in Auckland.

The DFB expects a high-class, but also difficult World Cup. “The fans can expect a sensational competition which, sportingly – I just believe in it – will again dominate the EM,” said Joti Chatzialexiou, sporting director for national teams at the DFB, the agency of German press. “But it’s hard to assess whether the crowds and the atmosphere we experienced in England will be surpassed.”

Do not play during German TV prime time

After the European Championships in England in July, with a record number of spectators and audience, Australia and New Zealand have a major disadvantage, mainly for the European teams: due to the time difference of up to at eleven o’clock matches can be seen on German night or early morning and not in the promising prime time.

The climate will also present players with special challenges. Appropriately, a “young, football-mad penguin woman” (FIFA) with a tuft of blue hair named Tazuni is the mascot of the World Cup. “Also we shouldn’t forget about the temperatures there, a different season awaits us: it’s dark and humid early. It will also affect our processes,” Chatzialexiou said. “The circumstances will be different and therefore also a challenge for the spectators,” added the 46-year-old. National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s team will probably need to arrive twelve days early to be in the biorhythm.

“There will be a different level that we have to prepare for – especially physically,” Chatzialexiou predicted. It is clear that Germany has high goals despite the difficult circumstances. “We want to play for the title again. We cannot and do not want to set ourselves another goal. After the European Championships we will be among the favorites again, which will be even more important with the United States. , Brazil and the Olympics”. champions of Canada,” said assistant and familiar with Voss-Tecklenburg, Britta Carlson. The Germans won the title in 2003 and 2007 and lost to Sweden in the quarter-finals of the 2019 World Cup in France.

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