November 28 – The four ‘home’ associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have formally submitted their joint bid for the Women’s World Cup 2035 with a proposed 22 stadiums, 16 of them in England of which five are in London.
The joint bid is the only bid for 2035. The 2027 World Cup will be held in Brazil, while the USA is the sole bidder for 2031 which will be the first of the expanded 48-team format.
The UK joint bid is glued together by the ‘All Together’ tagline, which the associations say is “a rallying cry for women’s football and sport more broadly to empower worldwide.”
Designed to be a “celebration of every part of our nation”, there will be a projected 4.5 million ticket sales and a global TV audience of 3.5 billion. The bid says that with 63 million people living within two hours of a proposed venue, it would be the most accessible tournament ever.
“Our bid to host the 2035 FIFA Women’s World Cup shows the UK’s passion for football.
“The Lionesses’ success has inspired girls across our country, and we’ll build on that momentum by welcoming millions of football fans from around the world to a tournament that will benefit communities and businesses in host cities up and down the UK,” said prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
“With significant investment in school sport and grassroots facilities through our Plan for Change, we’re creating opportunities for girls to play for their national team.”
Of the 22 stadiums selected, 11 are either being re-developed, have plans to redevelop, or will be new build.
New stadia to be completed by 2035 include Birmingham’s new 62,000-capacity Sports Quarter Stadium; wherever Chelsea land with their new stadium plans (Stamford Bridge does not meet FIFA specifications); Old Trafford either in its current form or potentially in tis redeveloped form; and a fast expanding STōK Racecourse in Wrexham (currently going to 18,000 capacity but with further expansion expected).
Villa Park, the American Express Stadium, and Etihad Stadium are all currently being redeveloped, while Elland Road, Selhurst Park, the City Ground, and the Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park have redevelopment plans prior to 2035.
The plans are for 16 stadia in England, three in Wales, two in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland – across 16 host cities.
As well as outlining stadia for the 104 games across 39 days, there are also 48 team base camp training sites, 82 venue-specific training sites and 32 Fan Festival Sites in the submitted bid plan.
“Hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup would be a huge privilege for our four home nations. If we are successful, the 2035 tournament will be the biggest single-sport event held on UK soil with 4.5 million tickets available for fans,” said a statement from the joint bid.
“We are proud of the growth that we’ve driven in recent years across the women’s and girls’ game, but there is still so much more growth to come, and this event will play a key role in helping us deliver that. Working together with FIFA, a Women’s World Cup in the UK has the power to turbo charge the women’s and girls’ game both in the UK and globally. Our bid also demonstrates our commitment to leaving a lasting legacy, in the run up to 2035, and the years afterwards.”
The UK has not hosted a World Cup since England hosted in 1966. However England has had two spectacular men’s World Cup bid failures for 2006, won by Germany, and for 2018, won by Russia.
After the public humiliation of those bids domestically and internationally, the English FA refused to bid subsequently due to their deep distrust of the FIFA bid process and the dangers of further abuse of public funds in a flawed and corrupt FIFA vote. It was a process, though ostensibly reformed, that the joint bid of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands fell foul of when Brazil were surprisingly awarded the rights to host the 2027 women’s World Cup.
The organisation and commercial backing of that upcoming World Cup still lacks detail and there are doubts as to how far Brazil and South America – traditionally very poor supporters of their women’s game and teams – will be able to take the finance and organization of this tournament forward to reflect the growth of the women’s game in the rest of the world.
Those fears will conquered knowing that the commercial powerhouse of the women’s game in the USA and UK will take care of 2031 and 2035.
Proposed Stadiums and Host Cities
- Belfast – Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park
- Birmingham – Sports Quarter Stadium1 and Villa Park
- Brighton & Hove – American Express Stadium
- Bristol – Ashton Gate
- Cardiff – Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium
- Edinburgh – Easter Road
- Glasgow – Hampden Park
- Leeds – Elland Road
- Liverpool – Hill Dickinson Stadium
- London – Chelsea FC Stadium, Emirates Stadium, Selhurst Park, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley Stadium
- Manchester – Etihad Stadium
- Newcastle – St James’ Park
- Nottingham – City Ground
- Sunderland – Stadium of Light
- Trafford – Old Trafford
- Wrexham – STōK Racecourse
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1764347739labto1764347739ofdlr1764347739owedi1764347739sni@n1764347739osloh1764347739cin.l1764347739uap1764347739
Source link
Add Comment