For the primary time, the Women’s World Cup can be held in South America, as Brazil was chosen to host the 2027 version at a FIFA congress on Friday, overshadowed by debates in regards to the battle in Gaza.
Following the profitable 2023 event in Australia and New Zealand, which generated a document $570 million in business income, FIFA continues its mission to convey girls’s soccer to new continents.
Delegates in Bangkok voted 119 to 78 in favor of Brazil, outpacing a joint bid from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
The announcement was met with jubilant celebrations from the Brazilian bid group.
Brazil, dwelling of girls’s soccer nice Marta, scored greater than its European rival in FIFA’s analysis report.
The FIFA inspectors famous the “tremendous impact on women’s football in the region” that South America internet hosting the Women’s World Cup would have.
Brazil’s bid contains 10 stadiums used for the boys’s World Cup in 2014, with Rio de Janeiro’s well-known Maracana lined up for the opening match and remaining.
But work must be finished, notably to the Amazonia stadium in Manaus, which has stood nearly unused for a decade.
The Brazilian Football Confederation has additionally been in turmoil with authorized challenges to its president.
Unlike their male counterparts, who’ve received 5 World Cups, Brazil’s girls have by no means lifted the trophy and made a group-stage exit in 2023.
Last yr’s event defied fears that rising the scale from 24 to 32 groups would dilute the spectacle, with over 1.4 million followers streaming via the turnstiles to witness a bunch of shocks, dramatic turnarounds, and breakthrough outcomes.
Gone had been the lopsided scorelines that had been a function of the earlier eight World Cups, reflecting a development in the usual of girls’s soccer.
Seven groups notched their first World Cup wins, and the United States and Germany, who between them had received six of the earlier eight tournaments, had been each dumped out early.
The solely bitter observe got here within the aftermath of final yr’s remaining in Sydney, by which Spain beat England 1-0.
Spanish Football Federation chief Luis Rubiales sparked outrage when he forcibly kissed midfielder Jenni Hermoso throughout the medal ceremony and now faces prosecution for sexual assault.
Gaza debate
The 74th FIFA congress, making its debut in Thailand, made its selection by open vote for the primary time because the group seeks to maneuver on from the corruption and shady dealings that dogged it prior to now.
Delegates had their selection simplified final month when the U.S. and Mexico withdrew their joint bid, deciding as an alternative to concentrate on attempting to win the best to stage the 2031 version.
As the Brazil event approaches, the main target can be on the massive monetary disparity between males’s and ladies’s soccer.
Prize cash for the 2023 Women’s World Cup was a document $110 million, however nonetheless far in need of the $440 million on supply to groups on the 2022 males’s finals in Qatar.
The congress additionally heard a name from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to droop Israel from the world physique and ban Israeli groups from FIFA occasions.
PFA head Jibril Rajoub mentioned the Israeli Football Association (IFA) had damaged FIFA guidelines, including: “FIFA cannot afford to remain indifferent to these violations or to the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”
His Israeli counterpart, Shino Moshe Zuares, rejected the decision as “cynical, political and hostile,” insisting the IFA had not damaged any FIFA guidelines.
FIFA supremo Gianni Infantino mentioned the physique would take unbiased authorized recommendation on the matter and determine by July 20 what motion to take, if any.
Statute adjustments
The congress additionally authorized adjustments to FIFA statutes, eradicating the rule fixing the group’s headquarters in Zurich, the place it has been since 1932.
The rule now says the placement of the HQ can be “determined by a decision passed by the congress” – opening the way in which for it to maneuver from the Swiss metropolis.
Delegates additionally voted to multiply the variety of committees from seven to 35, reversing steps taken in 2016 to wash up FIFA after it was rocked by a wave of corruption scandals.
The remits of the brand new committees embrace girls’s soccer, the struggle in opposition to racism, and eSports, however critics say they danger re-establishing a patronage system the reforms had sought to abolish.
Source: www.dailysabah.com