Four bids submitted for FIFA women’s sporting showpiece

Article posted by Coliseum, January 8^th, 2020

Image: FIFA

An important milestone has been reached vis-a-vis the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ bidding process. A deadline of December 13, 2019, was set for submitting the bids and four bids have been submitted by member associations who evinced keen interest in the entire bidding process.

The following football bodies submitted the bids much before the December 13 deadline:

Joint submission by the Football Federation Australia and New Zealand;
Submission by the Brazilian Football Association;
Submission by the Colombian Football Association; and
Submission by the Japan Football Association.

Brazil, Colombia and Japan will rival Australia and New Zealand for the right to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

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In the final shortlist, a proposed joint bid from North and South Korea was not included as the Korean Football Association backed out stating that there was heightened diplomatic tension between the two countries.

As the bids have been submitted, an assessment process will now be implemented by FIFA which includes inspection visits to the member associations. The inspection visits are expected to take place in the month of January and February this year. Once everything falls into place, the evaluation report will be published on FIFA.com and the bids which meet the criteria will be presented to the FIFA Council. A meeting will be held at Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in June this year which will select the host(s) of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

Following the huge success of 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in France and the subsequent unanimous decision by the FIFA Council, 32 teams will take part in the sporting showpiece – FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. It is for the first time that 32 teams will be taking part in the event.

Said FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, “France 2019 was certainly a watershed moment for women’s football, and now it is FIFA’s responsibility to take concrete measures to keep fostering the game’s incredible growth. With the FIFA Women’s World Cup generating an unprecedented interest across member associations, we are ensuring that the process to select the hosts is seamless, objective, ethical and transparent. By the time the FIFA Council announces the hosts, there should be no doubt whatsoever as to why that choice was made.”

Infantino asserted that he will pull out all possible stops to ensure that the Women’s World Cup bidding process is scam-free.

Key Topics and Evaluation

A wide range of topics key to FIFA’s assessment benchmark has been covered by the bid books – the event vision and key metrics, event infrastructure, event services, commercial matters and human rights and sustainability.

A robust evaluation model for the bidding process has been developed by FIFA and comprises the following key components:

Gauging Risk: Gauging the risks associated with certain criteria, applying a risk rating;
Technical Rating: Setting a benchmark for rating the infrastructure and commercial criteria, applying an evaluation system established by FIFA; and
Description: An abridged version of pertinent information provided in the bid and highlighting potential issues (without a technical evaluation or risk assessment).

The entire technical aspect of this bid assessment model includes an objective scoring system to rate and weight each of the infrastructural and commercial-related yardstick.

The FIFA Council picking up the host(s) for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will be made public which includes each ballot and the related votes.

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