FIFA confirmed that there will be a FIFA Council meeting on 25th June 2020 for the selection of host(s) of the Women’s World Cup to be held in 2023. The meeting was supposed to happen in early June in Addis Ababa but due to the adverse impact of COVID-19, it was rescheduled.
The host bidding war:
The bid for 2023 Women’s WC is said to be the most competitive bidding war in the history of the tournament. A part of the reason the record-breaking success of the 2019 edition in France which achieved the milestone of 1.12 billion viewers worldwide! More than double of 2015 edition in Canada. The final bids submitted are from football associations of Australia & New Zealand (joint bid), Brazil, Columbia and Japan.
South Korea, Argentina and South Africa had also expressed interest to host the showpiece tournament but had their bids pulled off last year due to various reasons.
FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura said “FIFA remains committed to implementing the most comprehensive, objective and transparent bidding process in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. This is part of our overall commitment to women’s football that, among other things, will see FIFA invest USD 1 billion in women’s football during the current cycle,”
The bidding process and timeline:
FIFA launched the bidding process in January 2019 and set the deadline of April 2019 for the member nations to express their interest to host the World Cup and complete their registration process.
A bid information workshop was conducted in Paris in June 2019 to exchange further bid information with FIFA on requirements and bid content and initial concepts. August 2019 was the deadline set for any new member of FIFA to express interest in hosting the tournament. After FIFA dispatched all updated bidding and hosting documents to bidding members in September, it accepted the final submission of bid in December 2019.
January and February 2020 was scheduled for inspection visits by FIFA.
These visits by FIFA delegations are a part of the overall assessment process. It majorly focuses on the technical aspects contained in the bid books and discusses the overall plans for women’s football development in the respective countries.
Image Courtesy: FIFA.com
The inspection dates of bidding countries were:
• Colombian Football Association (29 January – 1 February)
• Brazilian Football Association (3 February – 6 February)
• Football Federation Australia and New Zealand Football (17 February – 22 February)
• Japan Football Association (24 February – 27 February)
Based on the inspection visits, FIFA is now finalising the evaluation report of all bidding nations which will published on FIFA.com in early June 2020. This evaluation report includes the technical, key infrastructural and commercial viability of host to conduct the event.
“All eligible bids will be presented to the FIFA Council in order for it to select the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 host(s) within the scope of an open voting process, in which the result of each ballot and the related votes by the members of the FIFA Council will be made public on FIFA.com. Further details are available in the Voting Procedure (link), which has been approved by the Bureau of the FIFA Council.” Said FIFA in a statement released online.
FIFA World Cup 2023 is set to be the greatest women’s football event in history. In a meeting held in mid-2019 FIFA Council approved that the total teams participating in 2023 would be 32 instead of 24, a first time ever for Women’s World Cup since its inception in 1991.
Also read: Asian Games 2030 bidding war. India miss their chance!
List of nations previously hosted the FIFA Women’s World Cup:
| Year | Host | Winner |
| 1991 | China | United States |
| 1995 | Sweden | Norway |
| 1999 | United States | United States |
| 2003 | United States (2) | Germany |
| 2007 | China (2) | Germany |
| 2011 | Germany | Japan |
| 2015 | Canada | United States |
| 2019 | France | United States |