The FIFA Congress – the legislative body of the entity made up of its 211 members – decided this Friday at its meeting in Bangkok that Brazil will organize the 2027 Women’s World Cup, in which Spain will defend the title won in Australia and New Zeeland last summer. It will be the first time that the tournament is held in South America.
Brazil was one of the two candidates that remained in the race to host the next World Cup. The other was a joint proposal between Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, as the United States and Mexico opted two weeks ago to withdraw and focus on trying to host the competition in 2031. The other suitor, South Africa, stepped aside last month of November.
The option for the South American giant to organize the tournament had come into its own after receiving a rating of 4 out of 5 in the evaluation report published by FIFA on May 7. The joint proposal of the three European countries achieved a 3.7.
Among Congress voters, 119 today supported Brazil, 78 opted for Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany and 10 abstained—the four candidate countries to host the World Cup did not have the right to vote. “Brazil’s victory is everyone’s victory. With women’s football there is no division, we have to unite to continue its development,” said the president of the Brazilian federation, Ednaldo Rodrigues, in the speech after the vote, in which he promised a “historic” World Cup. “Today, women’s football is growing more and more, both in Brazil and throughout South America, and the organization of the World Cup will accelerate the process even more,” Valesca Araujo, one of the people responsible, stated at a press conference in Bangkok. of the candidacy.
The Women’s World Cup began to be organized in 1991 after FIFA rectified and finally agreed to endorse international women’s competitions. He had previously refused. For example, in 1971, the body that governs soccer on the entire planet opposed giving recognition to the world tournament organized by Mexico and even threatened the North American country’s federation with sanctions. That competition, whose story is told in the documentary Cup 71 —produced by the sisters Venus and Serena Williams and which can be seen on Netflix—, six teams competed: Argentina, Mexico, England, Italy, France and Denmark. The Spanish team, which was still taking its first unofficial steps under Franco’s dictatorship, received an invitation, but the federation, which rejected football played by women under sexist arguments, refused to let the athletes participate.
In addition to Spain last summer, Japan (2011), Norway (1995) and Germany (2003 and 2007) have won the World Cup, but the great dominator has been the United States, a country that is a historical power in the football played. by women and which has four titles (1991, 1999, 2015 and 2019) in the nine editions that have been held to date.
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