The US and Mexico, and the UK, have been confirmed as the sole valid bidders, respectively, for the 2031 and 2035 editions of soccer’s FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC).
An announcement was made by Gianni Infantino, president of the sport’s global governing body, FIFA, earlier today in Belgrade, Serbia, after the deadline for expressions of interest in staging the tournament had passed.
Both bidders now have to officially present compliant submissions to FIFA by the end of this year – should they do so, it will pave the way for the UK (which submitted an official expression of interest in March) to host women’s soccer’s biggest national teams tournament for the very first time, while Mexico has previously never staged WWC games before, either.
A formal vote on the hosts of both editions will take place at a FIFA Congress in 2026.
The US, meanwhile, last put on the tournament in 2003.
The US Soccer and Mexican Soccer Federations announced that they would be lodging a joint bid for the 2031 tournament last April, abandoning potential plans to bid for 2027 hosting rights in the process (that tournament was then allocated to Brazil).
For the 2035 tournament, meanwhile, bids were invited from either Europe or Africa.
While a joint submission by Spain, Portugal, and Morocco was seemingly in the works as of late last month, Infantino has now said that only one “valid” bid for the 2035 tournament has been received.
He stated: “Today I can confirm as part of the bidding process that we received one bid for 2031 and one valid bid for 2035. The 2031 bid is the United States of America and potentially some other Concacaf members and the 2035 bid is from Europe and the home nations [England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland].
"So the path is there for the Women's World Cup in 2031 and 2035 to take place in some great nations and further boost the women's football movement.”
The FIFA president also announced that the tournament in 2031 will feature 48 teams, up significantly from the 32 that will take part in Brazil in two years.
Now, the chief executive of the English Football Association, Mark Bullingham, has commented: “We are honoured to be the sole bidder for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2035.
"The hard work starts now to put together the best possible bid by the end of the year.”
The showpiece event was last staged in Europe in France, in 2019. It then traveled to Australia and New Zealand two years ago.
England made the final of the latter event, before losing to Spain, while the US – four-time WWC winners – were eliminated by Sweden at the round-of-16 stage, in what was a sizeable shock.
