In a dense press launch detailing a raft of selections with wide-ranging implications for world soccer, FIFA didn’t, by identify, point out america. However, with a single sentence and obscure justification, it made the U.S. a heavy favourite to host the 2031 Girls’s World Cup, seemingly alongside Mexico.
FIFA, world soccer’s governing physique, stated within the launch that solely nations from Africa and CONCACAF, the area encompassing North and Central America, could be eligible to bid for the 2031 match.
The U.S. Soccer Federation has repeatedly, and more and more, stated it is going to do exactly that.
“As quickly as [FIFA opens the bidding], we’ll put our bid in,” in January at a coaches conference in Chicago. “And we will win it.”
The U.S. and Mexico had collectively entered the race for the 2027 Girls’s World Cup, however weeks earlier than a FIFA vote. U.S. cities, locked in surrounding the 2026 males’s World Cup, had hardly been engaged by the bid workforce. Insiders, in the meantime, indicated that FIFA management needed to carry the 2027 match in Brazil. (, 119-78.)
So the they’d “as an alternative give attention to bidding to host the match in 2031.”
The expectation was that they’d face stiff competitors from an England-led United Kingdom bid, maybe from a second European bid, and maybe even from China.
However on Wednesday, the FIFA Council — an opaque ruling physique led by FIFA president Gianni Infantino — cleared away that competitors. It additionally dominated that solely African or European international locations will have the ability to bid for the 2035 Girls’s World Cup — making the UK bid a favourite for that version.
In Africa, South Africa had floated a bid for the 2027 match. It could seemingly be the chief challenger to the U.S. and Mexico. However the North American bid, which can promise record-breaking income and packed NFL stadiums, will probably be a heavy favourite.
It is a creating story and will probably be up to date.