Australian FA may bid for Men's World Cup after Women's World Cup

2023-05-14 11:37

Australian FA may bid for Men's World Cup after Women's World Cup


The Women's World Cup could serve as a springboard for Australia's future bid to host the men's championship, possibly in 2034 , Football Australia chief executive James Johnson said on Saturday .


Australia unsuccessfully bid to host the 2022 final, hosted by Qatar, but will join New Zealand in hosting the Women's World Cup in July and August .

Johnson told Reuters the Women's World Cup was " just the beginning " .

" In football, the opportunity to bring something big to Australia, It's definitely something interesting for us, " he said.

"2034 may be when we bid, but we need to have the Women's World Cup first to make sure we can walk the talk, so to speak.

" Once we deliver, we think this will be a good platform for us to discuss our next steps. It's a conversation we hope to enter very soon. "

Australian FA may bid for Men's World Cup after Women's World Cup

The next men's World Cup in 2026 will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, while the 2030 World Cup has yet to be allocated but will go to Europe, Africa or South America.

Johnson said a 48 -team World Cup out of Qatar's 32 teams might be too much for Australia alone.

" So tactically that means to bid for Australia in the future, we're going to have to work with other countries, " he added.

" We have a very close relationship with New Zealand ... but there may need to be discussions with other countries in our region, particularly South East Asia, about joining future bids.

" I think it's an interesting conversation for our government, especially where its foreign policy focus is. But once we have the Women's World Cup, we'll be involved so we can start from a concrete Examples of what we can do in the future are discussed.