Brazilian Bid Rated Highest In Race To Host 2027 Women’s World Cup

FIFA’s bid evaluation report on the two remaining applicants to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup has rated the Brazilian application higher than a joint-European bid from Belgium, Netherlands and Germany (BNG).

The bid evaluation report has been compiled after extensive inspection visits by FIFA officials to each applicant nation earlier this year. It will have no binding impact on the 211 members of the FIFA Congress who will vote to elect the hosts of the 10th FIFA Women’s World Cup at their 74th meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on May 17.

Nonetheless the report will have substantial persuasive value. FIFA’s ratings is comprised of a technical evaluation based on an assessment of the main infrastructure and commercial criteria, and a risk assessment including but not limited to human rights and sustainability.

Out of a maximum score of five, the Brazilian bid was rated at 4.0, compared to the 3.7 of BNG. FIFA has identified that a Women’s World Cup in Brazil has the potential for a strong commercial position, with a combination of competitive revenue potential and clear cost efficiencies” and stating that staging the tournament in Latin America would have “a tremendous impact on women’s football in the region.”

Although the report admits the BNG application “presents a sound all-round bid. The stadiums proposed have relatively smaller capacities” which would affect the proposed tournament’s ability to beat the attendance records set by the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

In a traffic light system of marking the respective bids, the only red flag for either was for the legal contractual framework in the BNG bid. The report explained that “a number of material changes were made to the hosting documentation, which would result in a more complex legal framework as the point of departure for planning the tournament if the bid were successful.”

It went to say “such deficiencies potentially expose FIFA to significant risks, including increased cost obligations, significant dilution of its rights (including the stadium authorities’ liability capped to the stadium rental fee) and a loss of operational control.”

A South American nation has never previously staged the women’s World Cup but Brazil has successfully hosted the 1950 and 2014 men’s World Cup and more recently, the men’s and women’s Olympic Football Tournaments during the 2016 Games. Many of the stadiums built or renovated for the 2014 World Cup were used in 2016 and are part of the bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Europe last staged the Women’s World Cup in 2019. Germany – one of three nations forming part of the joint BNG (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany) bid to host the 2027 finals – itself hosted the tournament as recently as 2011. Before the 2023 World Cup, shared by Australia and New Zealand, the women’s tournament has never before been co-hosted – never mind shared between three nations – bringing with it the complexities of multiple teams qualifying automatically as hosts.

Last Monday, the bid to host the 10th FIFA Women’s World Cup became a two-horse race after the third confirmed applicant, the United States together with Mexico, pulled out. The United States had previously hosted the tournament twice in succession, an unprecedented occurrence in almost a century of men’s and women’s World Cups.

The two countries, together with Canada, will host the 2026 men’s World Cup and to have staged the subsequent women’s tournament would also have been unprecedented. Whether or not expecting to win another vote from the FIFA Congress was too much to ask, they decided to instead shift their focus to hosting the 2031 edition of the Women’s World Cup where they are expected to face competition from China, Morocco and South Africa, who also withdrew from bidding to stage the 2027 tournament.

England and Spain, the two finalists at the last FIFA Women’s World Cup last year have also announced their intention to bid to host the 2031 tournament. However, should the BNG bid to stage the 2027 finals be successful, another European nation will be unable to host the subsequent tournament, ruling England and Spain out of the running until 2035.

The North American neighbors hope their advantage will come from their call for equality. “In a historic first, the bid will call for equal investment as the men’s tournament, eliminating investment disparities to fully maximize the commercial potential of the women’s tournament”

U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone insisted that “shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe.”