2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup: Australia and New Zealand to Co-Host Football Tournament

Australia and New Zealand will co-host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the world football governing body announced on Thursday. Australia and New Zealand had put a joint Trans-Tasman bid to host the tournament and were the favourites after Brazil and Japan opted out of hosting the tournament citing the one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. Columbia were seen as the only competition but after its executive council meeting, FIFA announced that the joint bid by Australia and New Zealand was voted as the best.

FIFA's technical committee voted the Trans-Tasman bid ahead of any of its rival. The joint bid was given a score of 4.1 out of five while Japan, who has already withdrawn received 3.9. Colombia only received 2.8 after the evaluation of the bids. The 2023 Women’s World Cup is scheduled to take place from July to August 23.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino congratulated both Australia and New Zealand for their successful joint bid. "The bidding process was highly competitive. We would like to thank both of the bidders for their remarkable work. It was really, really well prepared,” he was quoted as saying by BBC. "We have decided to award $1bn (£805m) to the development of women's football in the coming four years. We experienced last year in France a fantastic Women's World Cup. It broke all records. It brought women's football to a truly global stage,” he added.

The Trans-Tasman bid, which received enormous support from both Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern, promised ‘an unprecedented level of investment” in hosting the global tournament. This will be the first women’s World Cup tournament to feature 32 teams instead of the regular 24. It will also be the first to be hosted by two countries from two different football confederations.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 25, 2020 10:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).