The date for the draw to be held at the Rennes Opera House in Rennes, France, is said to be deliberately set to symbolically mark the International Women’s Day also on March 8. According to FIFA’s official website, the FIFA reps and the LOC travelled to Brittany for a four-day visit, where they made the announcement and during which they will conduct a preliminary inspection of the four stadia hosting the competition.

The joint delegation visited the town of Vannes on Tuesday, November 7, and will be in Concarneau on Wednesday, Saint-Malo on Thursday and Dinan-Lehon on Friday. “We visited the Opera House yesterday and it is a spectacular place,” said Rhiannon Martin, the FIFA Senior Competitions Manager on FIFA.com. “The teams attending the draw will enjoy a wonderful slice of French culture”, he added. Meanwhile, Ghana was among the biggest winners of the first leg matches of the Second Round of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup France 2018 African qualifiers at the weekend.

The Princesses humiliated their Kenyan counterparts 5-0 last Sunday in Cape Coast and seemed poised to overcome them again in the return encounter in a fortnight, with the winners progressing to the final round of the qualifiers. Two teams will emerge from the African qualifiers to represent the continent at the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup scheduled for August 5-24, 2018, in France.

Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, England, New Zealand, Japan, Korea DPR and China PR have already qualified for the competition, along with host country France. There are seven places still to be decided in the CAF, CONMEBOL and CONCACAF zones.

The opening match will be played at the Stade de la Rabine in Vannes, which will also provide the venue for the semi-finals and the final.