Brazil has become the second country to reconfirm its interest in hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup after Fifa announced that its flagship women’s tournament would expand to 32 teams for the next edition.
After the news broke yesterday, Football Federation Australia was quick to signal that it would still submit a proposal to host the event.
The Brazilian Football Confederation’s (CBF) president Rogerio Caboclo has made the staging of high-profile events in the country a cornerstone of his tenure. Brazil hosted the Copa América earlier this summer, and later this year will host the Fifa U17 World Cup, having been selected by Fifa after Peru was stripped of the hosting rights for poor preparations.
Brazil has already hosted a 32-team World Cup, when the men’s edition was held in the country in 2014, although that tournament was hit by repeated infrastructural issues and left the country with numerous white elephant stadiums.
Bidding nations for the 2023 World Cup have been given an extended deadline of December this year for submissions of their proposals. While nine countries had original signalled an intention to bid for the competition in its 24-team format – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and South Korea, in a possible joint bid with North Korea – Fifa has reopened the process entirely and will invite bids from new candidates.
