BBC Wales to air Wales Women’s World Cup Qualifiers
September 14, 2021
The Football Association of Wales and BBC Cymru Wales have announced a new broadcast partnership deal providing live coverage of all of Wales’ 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.
Gemma Grainger’s team are aiming to reach the finals, hosted in Australia and New Zealand, for the first time.
Wales will kick off their campaign on September 17th when they play host to Kazakhstan at Llanelli’s Parc y Scarlets. BBC Two Wales will have all the action live on Match of the Day Wales, with presenter Catrin Heledd joined by former Wales players Gwennan Harries, Nia Jones and Katie Sherwood.
The match will mark new team manager Grainger’s first competitive game in charge of Wales following Jayne Ludlow’s departure as manager. The team will also welcome back The Red Wall as fans will be able to attend a Women’s National Team match for the first time since March 2020.
Wales will then travel to Estonia for the second game of their campaign four days later, with BBC Two Wales again providing live coverage of the game from Pärnu on Match of the Day Wales.
Rhuanedd Richards, Director of Content and Services at BBC Cymru Wales, commented: “I am absolutely thrilled to be announcing that BBC Cymru Wales will be the FAW’s broadcast partners for the 2023 World Cup qualifying games – adding to BBC Cymru Wales’ growing list of coverage of Welsh sport across our platforms. So many women and girls have been inspired to play football after watching our team play on the international stage. This decision underlines our commitment to our national team and to Welsh sport, and I can’t wait for this campaign to get underway as we follow Gemma Grainger and her squad as they bid to get to the World Cup.”
Other nations in Wales’ qualifying group include France, Greece and Slovenia, with the final qualifier due to take place next September.
Online and radio coverage of all games will also be provided, with full live commentary on MW and DAB on BBC Radio Wales, live streaming on Cymru Fyw and live (text and watch) coverage on the BBC Sport website.