Brazil's bid for the 2027 Women's World Cup was ranked higher than the bid submitted by Germany, Netherlands and Belgium in an evaluation report released by FIFA on Tuesday.
The FIFA Congress is set to vote for the 2027 host on May 17 at its meeting in Bangkok. It will be the first time the member federations of soccer’s 211-nation governing body will hold an open vote to pick the tournament’s hosts.
Brazil has been favored to win the 2027 contest since FIFA brokered a deal with several of soccer's continental governing bodies in October to get preferred hosts of the men's World Cup in 2030 and 2034.
South American soccer body CONMEBOL agreed to take just three games for 2030 — one each in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay for a 104-game tournament mostly to be hosted in Spain, Portugal and Morocco — and skipped its turn to bid for 2034, which is going to Saudi Arabia.
Sending a first Women's World Cup to South America then became a likely consequence.
Based on the technical evaluation by a FIFA in-house panel, Brazil's bid was given an average score of 4.0 out of 5, while the joint European bid received a 3.7.
The three-person evaluation team, led by FIFA's chief women's officer Sarai Bareman, determined both bids qualify for consideration “due to both having exceeded the minimum hosting requirements” in the technical evaluation.
The United States and Mexico withdrew a joint bid last week. U.S. Soccer said the federations will instead focus on hosting the 2031 tournament. South Africa dropped its bid late last year, saying it would also turn to 2031. That hosting decision is due next year.
Brazil hosted the men's World Cup in 1950 and 2014, and hosting another major FIFA event would make better use of stadiums built for that tournament.
Germany hosted the Women's World Cup in 2011 and the men's World Cup in 2006. It also will host the men's European Championship in 10 cities starting June 14.
The 2023 Women's World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand and was the first hosted by two nations.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
