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Australia & New Zealand to host FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023

A landmark decision for women’s sport in Australia and New Zealand

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The Women’s World Cup is on its way.

That’s right — in possibly the biggest moment in women’s sport in this country, Australia and New Zealand have been successful in a joint bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The first FIFA senior tournament to be held in Oceania is historic in more ways than one.

It will also be the first tournament hosted across two confederations, bringing together the Asian Football Confederation and Oceania Football Confederation.

The tournament not only reaffirms the standing of the Matildas on the world stage, consistently matching it with the world’s best, but represents a fantastic platform to continue to grow women’s football and sport across the two nations.

The second biggest single-sport tournament on the planet, the most recent Women’s World Cup (2019 in France) broke records when it attracted 1.12 billion viewers worldwide.

The women’s game is undoubtedly entering unprecedented levels of participation, fan support, media coverage, and recognition across the globe, ensuring that the Women’s World Cup is one of the greatest coups in Australian sporting history.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the achievement, as “a historic tournament of firsts that will create a profound and enduring legacy for women’s football in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.”

The Chairman of Football Federation Australia, Chris Nikou, noted how the Women’s World Cup will help to “unlock the huge potential for growth in women’s football in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Australia is already one of the world’s best in women’s football, but through exponential participation growth in recent years (11% in 2019), the potential is enormous.

The sheer enormity of the tournament presents a unique and transformational opportunity to help grow both participation in and recognition of women’s sport, as well as further establishing female leaders and role models across Australia and New Zealand.

 

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WE DID IT! @asone2023 🇦🇺🇳🇿LETS GO AUSTRALIA & NZ! WORLD CUPS COMING HOME😍

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How it works

The tournament is scheduled to be held across Australia and New Zealand from Monday 10 July to Thursday 10 August in 2023.

The joint trans-Tasman bid means that 12 cities will host matches throughout the month-long competition, including Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, Launceston, Newcastle, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin.

The tournament will see an extra eight teams compete (compared to the 2019 France World Cup), creating a 32-nation World Cup.

As host nations, both Australia and New Zealand automatically qualify for the tournament.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is expected to draw record attendances through the gate, with upwards of 1.5 million spectators anticipated to attend, not to mention a worldwide viewership of over 1 billion spectators.

Make no mistake, this is one of the greatest stories in sport in Australia and New Zealand and will transform women’s sport, leaving a lasting positive impact across generations.