FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has received three bids to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup (WWC).

Two joint bids and one single bid were submitted ahead of the December 8 deadline by member associations representing three confederations.

The joint submissions came from European nations Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands and the US and Mexico in North America. Brazil, meanwhile, is bidding to solely stage women’s soccer’s flagship event.

South Africa recently withdrew its bid to host the tournament in 2027 after initially submitting an expression of interest earlier this year.

The South African Football Association focused on bidding for the 2031 WWC instead as it wanted to avoid showing a “rushed presentation” to FIFA this month.

In what it describes as “the most robust and comprehensive bidding process in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup”, the governing body will now conduct an evaluation process, including on-site inspection visits that are due to get underway in February 2024, before publishing its findings in a Bid Evaluation Report in May 2024.

FIFA stated: “In line with the bidding regulations, the evaluation process will focus on the defined priority areas of the event vision and key metrics, infrastructure, services, commercial, sustainability, and human rights.

“The technical aspect of the bid evaluation model includes an objective scoring system to rate and weight each of the infrastructure and commercial criteria.”

The host(s) will be decided through an open vote by the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 17, 2024.

FIFA announced the launch of its bidding process on March 23, with member nations given a deadline of April 19 to submit their expressions of interest.

Australia and New Zealand hosted the successful 2023 WWC earlier this year, which Spain won.

Brazil has never hosted the WWC but has staged the men’s event twice, in 1950 and 2014.

The US, meanwhile, has hosted the tournament twice before, in 1999 and 2003, while bidding partner Mexico has never staged the competition.

The WWC will be held one year after the men’s 2026 World Cup, which the US, Canada, and Mexico are co-hosting. The 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games are also taking place in the US.

In the European bid, meanwhile, Germany hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2011, while the Netherlands staged the UEFA Women’s Euro in 2019. Belgium has never hosted a major women’s tournament. If that bid succeeds, it will be the first time a WWC will be staged across three countries.

The 2015 tournament was hosted by Canada, while the 2019 edition was staged in France, which is likely to give the advantage to the North American and South American bids over Europe.