FIFA on Thursday appointed Australia and New Zealand to jointly organize the 2023 Women’s World Cup. The format will then go from 24 to 32 teams, announced the authority of world football.
The dossier presented by Australia and New Zealand was preferred to that of Colombia, the last other candidacy still in the running after the recent withdrawals from Brazil and Japan.
This ninth world women will be disputed in July-August 2023 in seven Australian cities and five of New Zealand with a final planned in Sydney.
A first
It is the first time that a Women’s World Cup has been organized by two countries, moreover belonging to two separate confederations, Australia having been attached to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) since 2006, New Zealand belonging to the Oceania Confederation.
This joint candidacy of the Australian and New Zealand federations was a big favorite as the evaluation report published on June 10 placed it clearly in the lead, with an average score of 4.1 out of 5, against 2 , 8 to Colombia. Then still in the running, Japan had obtained the score of 3.9 out of 5.
The southern candidacy “offers a range of quality options in terms of sports and general infrastructure. It also seems to be the most favorable from a commercial point of view,” justified the evaluation committee.
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