Sweden was selected as host nation for UEFA Women's EURO 2013 by the UEFA Executive Committee on 4 October 2010, with 12 teams competing in the final tournament.

The final tournament will be played from 10 to 28 July 2013, with hosts Sweden joined by the 11 sides who qualified. The draw for the finals took place at the Svenska Mässan Exhibition and Congress Centre in Gothenburg at 18.30CET on 9 November 2012 with three groups of four teams formed. The top two teams in each group and the two best runners-up progress to the knockout phase.

Each group will be played at two venues: Group A at Gamla Ullevi (Gothenburg) and Örjans Vall (Halmstad), Group B at Öster Arena (Vaxjo) and Kalmar Arena (Kalmar), and Group C at Nya Parken (Norrkoping) and Linköping Arena (Linkoping).

The quarter-finals will be played in Halmstad, Vaxjo, Linkoping and Kalmar and the semi-finals at Gothenburg and Norrkoping. The final will be at the new national Friends Arena in Solna.

In 2009, the first 12-team final tournament – expanded from eight – was held in Finland, Germany defeating England to win the title for the fifth time in a row. Sweden, who won the first European tournament in 1984, previously acted as joint hosts with Norway in 1997 for the inaugural eight-team Women's EURO, staging six group matches and a semi-final.

Two years earlier, Sweden had hosted the FIFA Women's World Cup finals, and more recently it was the venue for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.