Women’s World Cup destined for pastures new in 2023 vote

The task of building on the huge success of last year’s Women’s World Cup will fall to a region that has never staged it before when Colombia and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand vie for the 2032 hosting rights in Thursday’s FIFA vote.  

 The 2019 World Cup in France was hailed as a watershed for global interest in the women’s game and FIFA President Gianni Infantino personally drove the campaign to increase the field to 32 teams from 24 for 2032.   The greater weight on potential hosts to show they have the infrastructure necessary to welcome so many teams has helped make the Australia-New Zealand bid a strong favourite.  

 The FIFA bid evaluation report gave the joint bid, which is unprecedented for any senior World Cup in that Australia are in the Asian confederation while New Zealand remain in Oceania, 4.1 points out of five.  
 Colombia received a rating of 2.8 but the local football federation and CONMEBOL confederation have furiously protested its findings, in particular the use of the world “terrorism” when discussing security threats. FIFA stood by the report.  

Ramon Jesurun, president of the Colombian Football Federation, also says government backing will ensure any apparent deficiencies in infrastructure will easily be ironed out over the next three years.  

 “Today we easily have eight or nine cities that are apt, with hotel capacity, with health capacity,” he told Reuters on Tuesday.   “Undoubtedly we’ll have to make some alterations, some improvements, but we have an immense backing from the federal government, the sports minister, from the president himself.” 

 All the bids, including that of Japan, which quit the race on Monday, have emphasised the impact hosting the tournament would have on the take-up of the game by girls and women in their regions.  

 Colombian success on Thursday would mean the event being played in the footballing hotbed of South America for the first time, while the matches would be played at a time most appropriate for the all-important North American market.  (Reuters)

Undoubtedly we’ll have to make some alterations, some improvements, but we have an immense backing from the federal government, the sports minister, from the president himself