A brand new 12-team Fed Cup Finals will take place on clay in Budapest, Hungary in April of next year. 

 20 teams will have the chance to be crowned world champions each year, with eight qualifying ties taking place in February.

The winners of those ties will join this year’s finalists Australia, France, hosts Hungary and one wildcard nation in the inaugural Finals.

There is an $18m (£14.2m) prize fund. Of that, $12m (£9.5m) will go to the players, and the other $6m (£4.75m) to their national associations.

Not everyone is happy with the new format though, with former world number one and French Open champion Simona Halep saying she “won’t play any more”.

“To play home and away is the best feeling,” she said in Eastbourne this week.

“Away, you have to manage the emotions and the pressures. If the Fed Cup is going to change, I won’t play any more because I like the format that it is now. I love it actually. So if there is a change, it will be tough to play.”

Under the current format, the champions need to negotiate three home or away ties. From next year, they will play no more than one.

Billie Jean King won the competition eight times as either a player or captain. Now a global ambassador for the Fed Cup, she had this response to Halep in an interview for BBC Sport.

“First of all you have to think beyond yourself,” King said.

“I’d ask her – would you rather have 5,000 people watching you, or 23,000? What’s better for the sport? I don’t think there’s any question this new format has the potential to be more successful for our sport.”

Great Britain will contest a five-match qualifying tie at the end of the first week of February, having secured promotion to the World Group by beating Kazakhstan in London in April.

Potential opponents then include Japan, Romania, the United States, Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic.

If Anne Keothavong’s side are successful, they will feature in the Finals at the Laszlo Papp Budapest Sports Arena from 14-19 April.

The multi-purpose indoor complex, which is named after Hungary’s triple Olympic boxing gold medallist, will stage the Finals until 2022