Sport
Brazil announced as host of 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup
Brazil will host the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup after a majority of FIFA's 211 members voted for the South American nation over a joint bid from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
In a FIFA first, an open vote was conducted on Friday at the governing body's annual congress in Bangkok, with Brazil receiving 119 votes to 78.
Brazil was the preferred host after FIFA released a technical evaluation report of both bids, ranking slightly higher (4.0 out of 5) than the European proposal (3.7 out of 5) across multiple categories including accommodation, fan festival venues, transport infrastructure and stadiums.
They were the only two bids considered by the FIFA Congress after a third joint bid by the United States and Mexico withdrew earlier this month, while a fourth by South Africa was also dropped late last year. Both will re-submit bids to host the 2031 Women's World Cup instead.
Brazil was already favoured to host the tournament after FIFA negotiated a broader men's World Cup deal with CONMEBOL — the South American football confederation — last October.
Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay agreed to take three games for the 2030 men's centenary tournament, which will be majority hosted in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. This will allow FIFA to stage the opening match in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, where the first World Cup final took place in 1930.
The confederation also agreed to skip its turn to bid to host the 2034 Men's World Cup, which will most likely go to Saudi Arabia. In exchange, Brazil was expected to be awarded hosting rights for the 2027 Women's World Cup.
Brazil has hosted a senior World Cup twice, in 1950 and 2014, with 10 of the same stadiums used for the last men's edition to be used for the women's tournament.
Stadium capacity was one consideration in FIFA's evaluation report, with the European bid's venues having smaller overall sizes than Brazil, which could affect FIFA's efforts to surpass the attendance records set in Australia and New Zealand last year.
The legal and contractual complexity of hosting a tournament across three countries also saw the European bid marked lower than Brazil's.
This issue surfaced during last year's inaugural co-hosted tournament tournament where players who were based in Australia or New Zealand had their prize money taxed differently depending on the host country's own rules, with some players having to pay more in tax than others.
The 2027 tournament will take place between June 24 and July 25, with the opening and closing games to be played at the famous Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which can fit 73,000 fans.
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