| Tourney Name: | 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup Qualification |
| Dates: | 25 August 2001 – 12 July 2003 |
| Num Teams: | 99 |
| Confederations: | 6 |
| Prevseason: | 1999 |
| Nextseason: | 2007 |
The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process decided the 15 teams which played at the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the host China initially qualified automatically as the host nation.The qualification process for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup saw 99 teams from the six FIFA confederations compete for the 16 places in the tournament's finals. The places were divided as follows:
| Team | Qualified as | Qualification date | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance in finals | Last appearance | Consecutive streak | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runners-up (2003 AFC Women's Championship) | 4th | 4 | |||||
| UEFA qualification Group 4 winners | 4th | 4 | |||||
| UEFA qualification Group 1 winners | 4th | 4 | |||||
| UEFA qualification Group 3 winners | 2nd | 2 | |||||
| UEFA qualification Group 2 winners | 4th | 4 | |||||
| 2002 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup runners-up | 3rd | 3 | |||||
| 2002 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup champions | 4th | 4 | |||||
| UEFA qualification Play-Off winners | 1st | – | 1 | ||||
| 2002 African Women's Championship runners-up | 2nd | 2 | |||||
| 2002 African Women's Championship champions | 4th | 4 | |||||
| 2003 OFC Women's Championship champions | 3rd | 3 | |||||
| 2003 South American Women's Football Championship champions | 4th | 4 | |||||
| 1st | – | 1 | |||||
| 2003 AFC Women's Championship champions | 2nd | 2 | |||||
| 2003 AFC Women's Championship 3rd place | 1st | – | 1 | ||||
| CONCACAF–AFC play-off winners | 4th | 4 |
See main article: 2003 AFC Women's Championship. Like the previous edition, the AFC Women's Championship served as the tournament qualification for AFC members. Fourteens competed in the competition which included the World Cup hosts in China. After the group stage which eliminated ten teams from qualifying, the semi-finals saw the first team in North Korea as they defeated Japan 3-0. After China won the second semi, the third-place play-off would see South Korea qualify with a 1-0 victory over Japan which meant Japan had to qualify via play-off against the third place team from CONCACAF (Mexico).
Group A
| width=175 | Team | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 2 | +43 | 10 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 2 | +18 | 10 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 21 | −15 | 6 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 24 | −22 | 3 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 24 | −24 | 0 |
Group B
| width=175 | Team | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 0 | +34 | 12 | ||||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 7 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 26 | −24 | 3 | |||||||||
| align=left | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 15 | −13 | 0 |
Group C
| width=175 | Team | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=left | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 0 | +29 | 9 | |||||||||
| align=left | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 9 | −3 | 6 | |||||||||
| align=left | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 14 | −7 | 3 | |||||||||
| align=left | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 21 | −19 | 0 |
Knockout stage (top two teams qualify for World Cup)
See main article: 2002 African Women's Championship. Like the previous edition, the Africa Women's Championship served as the tournament qualification for CAF members.
See main article: 2002 African Women's Championship qualification.
The seven winners of the second qualifying round advanced to the final tournament: Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
Group A
| width=175 | Team | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=100 | Qualification | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 9 | Knockout stage | |||||||||||
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 6 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | −6 | 1 |
Group B
| width=25 | width=175 | Team | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=25 | width=100 | Qualification | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 7 | Knockout stage | ||||||||||||
| 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |||||||||||||
| 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 2 |
Knockout stage (top two teams qualify for World Cup)
See main article: 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (UEFA).
Qualified: -- -- -- --
The 16 teams belonging to Class A of European women's football were drawn into four groups, from which the group winners qualify for the World Cup. The four runners-up were played in playoff-matches for the 5th berth.
See main article: 2002 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup.
Qualified: --
The 2002 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup second-placed Canada qualified for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup. The winner USA qualified as host. The third-placed Mexico played against Japan in two play-off matches for qualification.
See main article: 2003 OFC Women's Championship.
Qualified:
The 2003 OFC Women's Championship determined the OFC's one qualifier for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup — the winner Australia.
See main article: 2003 Sudamericano Femenino.
Qualified: --
The fourth edition of the Sudamericano Femenino (Women's South American Championship) in 2003 determined the CONMEBOL's qualifiers Brazil and Argentina.
See main article: 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification (CONCACAF–AFC play-off).