FIFA Women’s series in Kenya

FIFA has tweaked the schedule for its 2026 FIFA Series, adding a fourth women’s group in Kenya and making minor adjustments on the men’s side. 

The headline change sees Kenya step in as a new host, taking the women’s line-up to 16 teams. FIFA announced yesterday that Australia, India and Malawi will join the hosts in Nairobi, with every match to be played at the 18,000-seater Nyayo National Stadium. 

Australia will face Malawi on 11th April, followed by Kenya against India, before a third-place play-off and final four days later. 

Elsewhere, the other women’s groups have remain unchanged and will still be staged in Brazil – hosts of the 2027 Women’s World Cup – as well as Côte d’Ivoire and Thailand to create a truly international affair. 

On the men’s side, FIFA has kept the overall structure intact, but there have been some late changes. Gulf nations Kuwait and Oman have withdrawn for safety and political reasons, forcing late adjustments in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. 

Azerbaijan will now face St Lucia on 27th March and Sierra Leone on 30th March. In Kazakhstan, a three-team format will be implemented to accommodate the late drop out, with the hosts joined by Comoros and Namibia, playing across 25th, 28th and 31st March. 

All other host nations – including Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Rwanda and Uzbekistan – will stage their fixtures as planned. Rwanda is still the only host running two groups. 

In total, the 2026 edition will bring together 50 men’s and women’s national teams across 13 groups and 12 host countries, with matches split between two windows: 25th-31st March for the men and 9th-18th April for the women. 

The concept remains the same – FIFA is using the Series to give a mix of emerging and established national teams more meaningful international fixtures, often against opposition they would not usually face. 

Five of the men’s teams involved – Australia, Cabo Verde, Curaçao, New Zealand and Uzbekistan – have already qualified for the 2026 World Cup. 

FIFA stress that the Series is as much about development off the pitch as on it, giving host associations experience in running international tournaments while increasing visibility for nations that rarely get global exposure.