Participating teams and officials Qualification Sixteen teams participated in the 2003 Women's World Cup, determined by a set of continental qualification tournaments that took place from August 18, 2001, to July 12, 2003. Three teams, Argentina, France, and South Korea, made their Women's World Cup debuts in the 2003 tournament. The remaining thirteen teams had competed in the previous World Cup. China was granted automatic qualification as the host and retained it after the United States were named the replacement host. The remaining fifteen participants, including the replacement host, were determined through a series of continental tournaments from a field of 99 teams. FIFA allocated five berths to Europe; two each to Africa, Asia, North America, and South America (increased by one from the 1999 tournament); and one to Oceania. The 2003 Women's World Cup was also used to determine the two European participants in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Squads For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup squads. Match officials Draw The group draw was originally scheduled to take place on May 24, 2003, in Wuhan, China, but was postponed prior to the relocation decision. It instead took place at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California on July 17, 2003, and included a formal handover ceremony for the FIFA Women's World Cup trophy, which was given to U.S. coach April Heinrichs by Chinese coach Ma Liangxing. FIFA also unveiled its Women's World Rankings system, which was used to determine seeded groups and retroactively calculated points for over 3,000 international fixtures dating back to 1971. The United States was placed in Group A and China was placed in Group D, while Norway and Germany were also seeded in Pot 1. The remaining three pots were distributed geographically to prevent two teams from the same confederation from being drawn into the same group, with the exception of one group that would have two European teams. The hosting United States was drawn into the tournament's "Group of death" alongside Sweden, Nigeria, and North Korea—all considered strong teams from their respective confederations. Group stage The tournament format was unchanged from the 1999 edition, with the first round consisting of sixteen teams organized into four groups by the final draw. The round-robin group stage consisted of 24 matches in which each team played one match against the other three teams in their group.