Football: the 2023 Women's World Cup organized in Australia and New Zealand

The last Women's World Cup took place in France in 2019. Jean-Paul Pélissier / Reuters

Text by: RFI Follow

Australia and New Zealand will co-host the 2023 Women's World Cup, the International Football Federation (FIFA) announced on June 25, 2020. The FIFA Council preferred the Pacific duo to Colombia to host the first World ladies in history with 32 teams.

Publicity

Read more

"  Our candidacy ticks a lot of boxes  ", assured Chris Nikou, boss of the Australian Football Federation who hoped to win this June 25, 2020 the co-organization of the 2023 Women's World Cup with New Zealand, ten years after an aborted Australian candidacy for the Men's World Cup 2022.

One opponent, Colombia

Finally, the 37 members of the Fifa Council, meeting by videoconference, decided that these two countries will succeed France, the last organizer of the Women's World Cup. After Japan's withdrawal on Monday, just three days before the decision of the FIFA executive committee, the two countries only had to face a single opponent, Colombia.

The 2023 edition will be the first to bring together 32 teams, against 24 previously, in order to further increase the popularity of the female side of the sport, long crushed by men's competitions. The latest edition in France was attended by more than a billion people, an audience that was unimaginable a few years ago.

In the record of the winners, a strong argument certainly weighed in the balance. This Austral World will be contested in 7 cities in Australia and 5 in New Zealand, and in 13 stadiums of which only one will be built in Sydney.

The list of applicants has shrunk

Still numerous in April 2019 during the unveiling of the candidate countries, the list of applicants presented this Thursday to the Council of Fifa has shrunk like skin. At the beginning of the month, Brazil, hit hard by an economic crisis and the coronavirus epidemic had thrown in the towel. The organizing country of the Men's World Cup in 2014 was however considered the main rival of the Australia / New Zealand ticket.

"  Due to the economic measures taken to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has indicated that it would not be advisable to sign the guarantees required by Fifa,  " said the Brazilian Football Confederation. (CBF) in a press release. The World Bank forecasts an 8% recession this year for the largest economy in Latin America. It must be said that the task is heavy to organize in July-August 2023 this World Ladies with 32 teams.

Since its creation in 1991, the Women's World Cup has never been organized in Oceania.

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Sports
  • Soccer
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • 2023 Women's World Cup