By Bushrah Yusuf-Badmus
The world football governing body, FIFA says the host(s) of the 2023 Women’s World Cup will be announced on June 25, 2020 by the FIFA Council.
According to a statement from the body on Friday, the four bidding member associations will know their fate after the FIFA Council meeting to be held online on June 25.
This is in light of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having around the world and the postponement of the FIFA Council meeting that was foreseen to take place in early June 2020 in Addis Ababa.
”FIFA has today confirmed to the bidding member associations that the selection of the host(s) of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ by the FIFA Council will be made at its meeting to be held online on 25 June 2020.
”In the most competitive bidding process in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, four bids are in the race to host this showpiece competition by the following:
”Joint submission by Football Federation Australia and New Zealand Football, the Brazilian Football Association, the Colombian Football Association and the Japan Football Association,” the statement read.
The statement added that FIFA was finalising the evaluation report following inspection visits to all bidding member associations.
”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 on FIFA.com,” the statement read.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that while France 2019 went down in history for setting new standards for women’s football competitions, the 2023 Women’s World Cup 2023 is set to write a new piece of history as it will be the first edition to feature 32 teams instead of the usual 24.
