The Athletic | Football@TheAthleticFC
The European qualifying play-offs for the Women’s World Cup take place in October. If UEFA plans to boycott the World Cup, those matches surely cannot take place, as they would be attempting to qualify for a tournament in which they would not plan to compete.
Those play-offs include reigning European champions England and 2019 finalists the Netherlands, as well as Wales, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway. Thirty-two teams in total would be impacted.
And if UEFA goes along with the boycott until next summer, it would mean reigning world champions Spain and reigning European champions England — both heavily fancied to lift the trophy next summer — would not be in attendance.
In fact, six of the top 10 nations would not be in Brazil.
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