Brazil Withdraws From Race to Host 2023 Women's World Cup

Brazil has officially withdrawn from the bidding process to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, citing an ability at this time to provide the necessary guarantees to meet FIFA’s standard protocol to ensure the tournament could have gone ahead if selected as hosts.

The Brazilian football federation (CBF) noted the willingness of the country’s federal government to address a letter of support for the bid to FIFA insisting that Brazil has the infrastructure to host such an event, as has been shown in the past.

Brazil recently hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup / Robert Cianflone/360/Getty Images

However, due to the economic problems that have only been worsened by the ongoing coronavirus crisis, the CBF explains it is not currently advisable to make the guarantees requested by FIFA.

As a result of the understandable caution from the Brazilian government and other partners, the CBF was ultimately unable to make formal commitments in the necessary timeframe.

Brazil, which has hosted the 2013 Confederations Cup, 2014 World Cup, 2016 Olympic & Paralympic Games, 2019 Copa America and 2019 Under-17 World Cup, has now pledged to support Colombia in the ongoing bidding process in their efforts to bring the Women’s World Cup to South America.

The Women’s World Cup has only ever been held in Europe, Asia and North America.

Two other remaining bids will rival Colombia, one from Japan and a joint effort from Australia and New Zealand. The latter would also break new ground in terms of continents, if successful.

The host for the 2023 Women’s World Cup will be chosen at a FIFA council meeting on 25 June.

FIFA will choose the 2023 hosts later this month / OZAN KOSE/Getty Images

Belgium, Bolivia, Argentina and South Africa are among the other countries to have previously expressed interest in hosting in 2023 but have since dropped out. South Korea was another prospective host with a bid that proposed to also include North Korea.

The 2019 edition of the tournament took place in France and was watched in total by an estimated one billion people around the world. The United States took the title, their fourth overall.

The 2020 coronavirus crisis has seen women’s football disrupted, with the Olympic Games one of the most prestigious events on the international calendar. That has been postponed until 2021, while a knock-on effect has meant the 2021 European Championship will now be in 2022.

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