In a recent development, FIFA has announced that the hosts of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup will be selected at its meeting which is scheduled to be held online on 25 June.
Notably, the FIFA Council meeting was scheduled to take place in early June in Addis Ababa. However, it was forced to be pushed back and to the online mode owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
For the unversed, the four finalists to host the event include a joint bid from New Zealand and Australia as well as bids from Brazil, Colombia and Japan. The 2023 edition of the tournament is set to be the first time that a Women’s World Cup will feature as many as 32 teams.
“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,” the sport’s governing body said in a statement.
Since the beginning of the tournament in 1991, China and the United States have both hosted the event two times each. The remaining editions of the tournament have been hosted by Sweden, Germany, Canada and France.
“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,” said FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura.
(With quotes and inputs from IANS)