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

As BBC Sport reported in March, 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 and 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.

David Haggerty, the president of the International Tennis Federation which runs the competition, argues the new format remains true to the original.

“The launch of the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Finals will create a festival of tennis that elevates this flagship women’s team competition to a new level, yet remains loyal to the historic core of the Fed Cup,” he said.

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.

Ties will consist of two singles matches, and one doubles. There will be four groups of three teams, with the winners of each group progressing to the semi-finals.

The WTA were keen for the Finals to be played on clay, as the event is sandwiched between two important clay court events in Charleston and Stuttgart.

The Fed Cup, which was founded in 1963, is the largest annual international team competition in women’s sport.

The Davis Cup – the men’s equivalent team competition – has already undergone significant reform.

A $3bn (£2.4bn) 25-year partnership has been agreed with Kosmos, the investment group founded by the Barcelona defender Gerard Pique.

This November, 18 teams will compete for the title and $20m (£15.8m) of prize money in the inaugural finals in Madrid.

There will be some eye watering sums on offer for the women, too. Each team will share $500,000 just for making it to the Finals, with the winning team dividing $3.2m (£2.5m) between the players.

The ITF is also promising an additional $4.9m (£3.9m) for nations competing below the elite level of the competition.