World Netball (WN) recently announced changes to the Netball World Cup 2027 (NWC2027) format, including the introduction of Cup and Plate competitions, as well as increased recovery time for all teams.
Qualification for the NWC2027 will remain the same, with the top five in the WN World Rankings as of 1st December 2025, plus the host country (Australia), qualifying to be invited to compete at the event.
Five Regional Qualifiers will take place to determine the remaining 10 teams, with the top two from each qualifier invited to compete in NWC2027.
Regional Qualifiers will be played between 1st January – 30th September 2026.
But, how exactly will the new format work? Who will play for the Plate, and who will play for the Cup? Why are we keeping it to one venue? Will results still be carried over?
Don’t worry we have you covered! Here is all the information you need to know:
- The Venue
All matches at the NWC2027 will be played in one venue, on one court.
This will allow for enhanced broadcast production, event presentation and fan experience to occur, whilst also giving all players an equal opportunity to play in the biggest and best venue.
Matches will be played in sessions of between two and four matches per session, with the total number of matches increasing from 60 to 64.
- Seeding Process
The initial seeding process will remain the same, with seeding determined by all the qualified teams’ WN World Ranking position as of 1st December 2026.
However, when placing teams into their initial pools, equitable seeding distribution of the top eight seeds will be applied, as opposed to advantage seeding.
This means that the top eight seeded teams will be allocated as follows based on their WN World Rankings as of the 1st December 2026:
Pool A – 1st and 5th, Pool B – 2nd and 6th, Pool C – 3rd and 7th, and Pool D – 4th and 8th.
The teams seeded 9-12 and 13-16 will be drawn randomly to complete the four teams in each pool.
This change to equitable seeding will promote closely contested matches in initial pool play, while providing more opportunities for lower ranked teams to improve from their initial seeding and lift their overall final placing.
- The Pool Stage (Phase one)
There isn’t much to update you on here, as not much is changing in the initial pool stages.
There will still be four pools, made up of four teams. Each team will play three matches during this first phase, against the other teams in their pool.
One change is that as teams move forward, there are no longer any results carried into the next phase of the competition.
- The Cup and Plate (Phases two & three)
The teams that finish first and second from each pool in phase one will qualify to compete for the Cup, whilst third and fourth in each pool will qualify to compete for the Plate.
In each competition, during phase two, two new pools of four teams – one from each initial pool – will play in another round robin format, with each team playing three matches.
Following on from this, for both the Cup and Plate, in the third and final phase of the competition, each team will have their a respective cross-over semi-final, followed by a final placing or classification match. During this phase all matches will play to a result, with no drawn games permitted.
All teams will finish the competition with a final position from 1 to 16.
The team winning the Cup will be 1, whilst the team in placing 9, will win the Plate.
This format is simpler to understand and explain, and the introduction of a Plate competition will enhance competitiveness, engagement and storytelling opportunities for the full duration of the tournament across all key stakeholder groups – players, fans, content partners, and sponsors – just to name a few!
To read the initial NWC2027 format announcement, click here.
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