Australia and New Zealand are getting closer to co-host 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup as Brazil’s candidature was withdrawn. There are now three active bids to host the tournament: Colombia, Japan and Australia-New Zealand.
With FIFA’s plan to expand the tournament o 32 teams, a joint Australian–New Zealand bid was announced to be under consideration in July 2019. On 10 December 2019, shortly before the FIFA bid deadline, Football Federation Australia (FFA) and New Zealand Football (NZF) announced an agreement to submit a joint bid with 13 stadiums (eight in Australia and five in New Zealand) in 12 host cities.
According to Stuff, FIFA revealead that the joint-bid was judged the strongest during the technical evaluation phase. Each of the three bids was assessed across six categories and given an overall average score out of 5 – the scores are:
1) Australia-New Zealand 4.1
2) Japan 3.9
3) Colombia 2.8
Both countries have tradition when it comes to women’s football. Australia played seven out of eight World Cup editions and won 2010 AFC Women’s Asian Cup while the Football Ferns appeared in five World Cups and won OFC Women’s Nations Cup for six times.
The final decision about the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup’s host will be taken on June 25. Hosting this tournament is an important step for both countries as Australia and New Zealand have already expressed interesting on co-hosting 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Oceania Football Center 