Wales Advocates for Expansion of Women's Euros
Wales lost all three of their Euro 2025 group matches against the Netherlands, France, and England.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) is actively lobbying UEFA to increase the number of teams in the Women's European Championship from 16 to 24, aligning it with the men's tournament format.
Wales secured qualification for their first major women's tournament at Euro 2025 by defeating the Republic of Ireland in a play-off, but were eliminated at the group stage in Switzerland.
With Rhian Wilkinson's squad currently pursuing qualification for their first Women's World Cup and looking ahead to Euro 2029, the FAW is urging UEFA to expand the tournament to accommodate more teams.
"We're lobbying quite strongly with Uefa to try and move from a 16-team Euros to 24 teams like the men," FAW chief executive Noel Mooney told Wales.
"I don't see why we shouldn't have 24 teams for 2029. We think that's right, we think that's fair, so we're lobbying for that which would obviously give teams like ourselves or our neighbours in Scotland or Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland a greater chance to play at the Euros."
Wales' Progress and Ambitions
The men's European Championship expanded to 24 teams starting with Euro 2016, a change that benefited Wales by enabling their qualification for their first major tournament since the 1958 World Cup.
Under Chris Coleman, Wales reached the semi-finals in France, initiating a successful era that included qualification for the subsequent European Championship and the 2022 World Cup.
Wales' women made their major finals debut at the previous year's Euros, where they were placed in the same group as England. Meanwhile, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland did not qualify.
"The Republic lost out to us going to Euro 2025, but if that was a 24-team tournament they'd have been there and that would have been a huge lift for their country," Irishman Mooney added.
"We were beneficiaries last time and for the World Cup it's our aim of course to get there but we are cognisant of the complexity of the current system with Fifa to qualify."
Current Qualification Campaign
Wales secured a victory over the Czech Republic on Tuesday, finishing top of their 2027 World Cup qualifying group.
Rhian Wilkinson's team now faces two European play-off matches and potentially an inter-confederation play-off to qualify for the World Cup.
Given this challenging qualification route, Wales views qualifying for Euro 2029 as a more attainable goal, and an expanded tournament would improve their chances.
"We're very lucky and we have great friends at Uefa," said Mooney, who previously worked for UEFA.
"For example, Nadine Kessler, the chief of women and girls' football, I worked very closely with and she's someone who is very progressive in how she thinks. Uefa itself has been very progressive.
[Former Wales captain] Laura McAllister is vice president of Uefa and would be very much somebody who can bring our voice to Uefa, which is great for us.
Working with countries like our neighbours who are interested in this, we can bring those voices to Uefa and say, 'Look, we understand the costs impact by increasing the amount of teams, but if you're doing it for the men you should do it for the women too'."
