FIFA considers final three bids for 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

World football-governing body, FIFA has confirmed that three bids to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup have made it to the final stage of the process. The bids include those from Japan, Colombia and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand.

An online meeting and vote will be held by the FIFA council on June 25 to select the successful bid for the tournament which will involve 32 nations for the first time.

FIFA’s update followed a “detailed assessment of the bid books and visits to the bidding countries”, as they published their Bid Evaluation Report.
“Three bids will be submitted to the FIFA Council in order for it to select the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 host(s),” added a statement from the governing body on Wednesday.

FIFA ranked the Australia-New Zealand bid as the “most commercially favourable” and the highest scoring overall with 4.1 points out of five. Japan (3.9) and Colombia (2.8) were behind, but both were over the required threshold and proceeded to the vote.

The United States won the last Women’s World Cup, which was hosted by France in 2019.

FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura said the 2023 edition of the World Cup was expected to be bigger and better than the preceding edition in France in 2019.
“One year after the record-breaking eighth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, the FIFA Council will decide on the host(s) for the ninth edition of the tournament in 2023, which we hope will be even bigger and better,” Samoura said.
“The quality of the bids is testimony to the tremendous momentum women’s football has generated.
“We are looking forward to building on this to take women’s football to the next level at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023,” she concluded.

Brazil withdrew their proposal on Monday and will instead join the other South American nations in backing Colombia. The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) said the current economic situation, fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, was one of the reasons for its withdrawal. South America has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Asia has done so twice – in China in 1991 and 2007.