Women's World Cup 2023 | Australia/New Zealand or Colombia are the potential venues | Oz/NZ win it

[jojojo]

The venue for the 2023 tournament is due to be announced this afternoon. With Japan withdrawing their bid, it's a head to head competition between a joint Australian/New Zealand or a bid from Colombia.

Now just to give an idea here, Australia have one of the world's top women's teams, a well established League, and a good chance of drawing a local audience for the event. Colombia have none of the above - but they do have problems funding their women's national team.

It all looked on for Aus/NZ - easy leaders on the technical assessment - to get a World Cup. And then:
- some UEFA delegates urged the voters to go with Colombia.

Surely no...

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...to-host-2023-womens-world-cup-boosted-by-uefa

 

[Dargonk]

I can easily see this going the route of the last bid Australia had. On paper they are the better option, but we don't play the whole bribe/fifa game as well as the other bids and miss out.

 

[FootballHQ]

Hope Aussies get it, would love to see them get a mens World cup sometime soon but Womens one has massively grown in profile with last two tournaments so wouldn't be a bad consolation prize.

Nothing against Colombia but I think it had one of the underage world cups a few years back.

 

[Samid]

This is a pivotal decade for women's football in terms of building interest and audience, and also becoming self-sustainable. No offence to Australia/NZ but their timezones are so out of sync with the rest of the world. They might be able to draw a local audience but for all other stakeholders I'm struggling to see how it will be anything else than a hindrance.

Objectively speaking Aus/NZ is probably the best option and they'd deserve to host it but... at this point of time very few people in Europe, Africa, South/North America and parts of Asia have any incentives to watch women's football at extremely awkward hours. It would be a wasted opportunity if the aim is to grow the game.

 

[jojojo]

David Squire's giving the antipodean perspective:
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...25/david-squires-on-2023-womens-world-cup-bid

 

[jojojo]

This is a pivotal decade for women's football in terms of building interest and audience, and also becoming self-sustainable. No offence to Australia/NZ but their timezones are so out of sync with the rest of the world. They might be able to draw a local audience but for all other stakeholders I'm struggling to see how it will be anything else than a hindrance.

Oz/NZ really will offer a good local audience though - and the local audience is critical for the WWC, as seen last year in France. They also have a big enough tourist industry to easily handle both the teams and training bases, and travelling fans.

The last thing a WWC needs now is a live audience flop. France had a decent crowds in big stadiums and as everyone has seen during the covid BCD games, the live audience also helps keep the TV audience engaged.

I agree the timezone is a problem, but Colombia isn't really much of an answer. In fact it almost feels like they're rewarding the Colombian FA for ignoring the women's game, and treating their national team badly.

I get the argument that it might act as a boost to the game inside Colombia, and maybe in South America generally - I just don't have much faith in the authorities to deliver it.

 

[jojojo]

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FA FIFA rep too important to take a call from a Prime Minister.

 

[jojojo]

The Australia/New Zealand bid wins.

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Hopefully, the next South American bid will come in from an FA that actually backs women's football, and that has a local fanbase to help drive the live crowds.

 

[jojojo]

Looks like the voting split strictly by regional FA lines:

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If it was tactical by UEFA, maybe to get allies for a European based (men's) WC, then it's an interesting outcome.

 

[rcoobc]

Looks like the voting split strictly by regional FA lines:

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If it was tactical by UEFA, maybe to get allies for a European based (men's) WC, then it's an interesting outcome.

There is so much wrong with that

 

[Sean_RedDevil]

This is a pivotal decade for women's football in terms of building interest and audience, and also becoming self-sustainable. No offence to Australia/NZ but their timezones are so out of sync with the rest of the world. They might be able to draw a local audience but for all other stakeholders I'm struggling to see how it will be anything else than a hindrance.

Objectively speaking Aus/NZ is probably the best option and they'd deserve to host it but... at this point of time very few people in Europe, Africa, South/North America and parts of Asia have any incentives to watch women's football at extremely awkward hours. It would be a wasted opportunity if the aim is to grow the game.

Yep

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[RoyH1]

Very surprised to see CONCACAF not voting for the CONMEBOL bid. Some bad blood there I suppose

 

[jojojo]

Very surprised to see CONCACAF not voting for the CONMEBOL bid. Some bad blood there I suppose

Brazil dropped out of the bidding process a few weeks ago - if their bid had gone ahead then it would have been a tough contest for Oz/NZ. Brazil has a decent national team and they got good TV audiences there during WWC19.

Colombia though? They really have no track record supporting women's football, not even at the national team level - it would be like rewarding their FA for doing a crap job.

For FIFA it would have been a massive gamble commercially and in terms of live crowds in particular - which is why the technical report came out against Colombia by quite a margin.

Most of the regions followed the technical report (and Infantino's encouragement).

UEFA meanwhile explained their vote as:
“Even though the Colombian bid was not the one rated highest technically by Fifa, European members of the Fifa council felt it represented a strategic opportunity for the development of women’s football in South America thanks to the legacy and increase of attention for the women’s game that the tournament would bring to the continent.

“It was a choice between two countries – Australia and New Zealand – where women’s football is already strongly established, and a continent where it still has to be firmly implanted and has a huge development potential. It’s important to add that European members of the Fifa council agreed to vote together on major issues as a matter of solidarity.”

The Australian FA weren't too impressed with the way the FA voted.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...inted-by-english-snub-in-womens-world-cup-bid
I guess that's another country that won't be voting our way for the Eurovision song contest