Following their historic Commonwealth Games gold medal, England – who qualify for next summer’s tournament as host nation – have moved ahead of New Zealand in the world rankings for the first time and will be seeded second for the tournament.

The annual update to the INF world rankings confirms the top six seeds for next summer’s tournament – which takes place from 12-21 July 2019 at Liverpool’s Echo Arena – as:

First seed: Australia
Second seed: England
Third seed: New Zealand
Fourth seed: Jamaica
Fifth seed: South Africa
Sixth seed: Malawi

The release of the tournament seedings means organisers have confirmed the match schedule for the top six seeded teams for the Preliminaries Stage One group phase of the competition, which can be found here.

The automatic qualifiers join Northern Ireland, Scotland, Samoa and Fiji, who all qualified through their respective regional qualifying tournaments earlier in 2018.

The final list of qualified teams will be confirmed officially by the INF in September 2018 with two further teams being seeded according to world rankings and the remaining eight teams drawn into groups for the Preliminaries Stage One phase of the competition.

Six places at the tournament are still up for grabs in the remaining three regions – Africa, Americas and Asia – and will be confirmed at regional qualifying tournaments held in August and September.
Tickets for the event are set to go on pre-sale to England Netball members from 3-12 July and to anyone who signs up for the event website form 17-27 July, before going on general sale in September 2018.

Courtesy of Netball World Cup 2019

As official charity partner, Cancer Research UK will work in partnership with Netball World Cup 2019 to create fundraising opportunities throughout the event build-up and at the tournament itself, raising money to fund vital research into game-changing treatments, to help bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

The partnership with Netball World Cup 2019 builds on Cancer Research UK’s ongoing relationship with England Netball, which has seen over £3 million raised since 2010.

Commenting on the partnership, Netball World Cup 2019 Event Director, Lindsay Impett, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Cancer Research UK as our official charity and look forward to working with them to create innovative and engaging fundraising opportunities for our fans in the run-up to and during the tournament.

“Netballers in England have demonstrated their great support for Cancer Research UK over the years and we look forward to continuing this momentum when we bring the world’s most prestigious netball tournament to Liverpool next summer.”

Chloé Williams, Netball World Cup 2019 Partnership Manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “We’re over the moon to have been selected as the Netball World Cup 2019 official charity partner. Every breakthrough we make in the fight against cancer would simply not be possible without the support of people, organisations and events just like this one, and for that, we are truly grateful and can’t wait to see the success of this partnership on and off the court. This is beating cancer.”

Pre-sale tickets will be available to England Netball members from 3-12 July and to anyone who signs up for the event website form 17-27 July, before going on general sale in September 2018.

The event is to be delivered by Netball World Cup 2019 Limited, on behalf of England Netball and in partnership with UK Sport, Liverpool City Council and ACC Liverpool and takes place from 12-21 July 2019. The tournament will see the top 16 teams in the world go head-to-head over ten days of thrilling competition at the Echo Arena Liverpool, part of the ACC Liverpool campus.

Courtesy of World Cup 2019