AfriPulse
NEW YORK – The U.S. will submit a joint bid with Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup, marking the first time the competition will have four host nations in time for its expansion to 48 teams.
U.S. Soccer confirmed its interest in hosting the tournament by FIFA’s deadline last May, doing so after announcing in April 2024 that they would no longer pursue a bid for the 2027 Women’s World Cup and shifted its focus to 2031. Mexico was included in the initial bid for 2027 and will stay on as a cohost for 2031, while Costa Rica and Jamaica officially joined the 2031 bid during an event held in New York on Monday. FIFA’s decision to expand the Women’s World Cup from 32 teams to 48 for the 2031 edition, matching the men’s tournament, was the main impetus to host the 2031 competition in four countries.
“We announced the bid for ’27 with Mexico and then decided for various reasons to shift the bid to ’31 and then FIFA voted to move the tournament to 48 teams,” U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone told media members following the announcement. “As soon as I knew for sure that was in the works, I went to [Concacaf] president Victor Montagliani and talked to him about our vision and that we wanted to make it bigger and include more countries throughout Concacaf and wanted to work with him to pick which countries would be best suited. Obviously, quality of teams, stadiums, infrastructure. Outside of stadiums like hotels, training facilities also went into the decision.”
The U.S. and Mexico had always viewed the Women’s World Cup as a chance to further the growth of women’s soccer in their nations but FIFA’s choice to expand the tournament means the 2031 tournament is now being earmarked as a chance to accelerate the development of the game across the region. The ‘For Now, For Next’ bid, as the federations have dubbed it, will welcome an estimated 4.5 million fans to matches, a sizable opportunity for each host nation. While this would be the U.S.’ third time hosting the Women’s World Cup, Mexico would host the tournament for the first time and both Costa Rica and Jamaica would hold senior World Cup games for the first time ever.
“I think one of our goals of an inclusive 2031 Women’s World Cup was [as] an instigator of investment in obviously our countries but also across the region and ultimately the world,” U.S. Soccer CEO and secretary general JT Batson said. “For Jamaica and Costa Rica to show the world that they can host a Women’s World Cup and obviously field great teams, that is obviously a motivator in programs and countries all over the world so that was a big driver in terms to why we approached it the way we did.”
Abby Wambach, a member of the U.S. women’s national team’s World Cup-winning team in 2015, was in attendance and spoke to the strides the game has made since she made her international debut in 2001, most notable among them the USWNT’s equal pay agreement in 2022. Wambach said the 2031 tournament has the potential to push the sport forward in more ways than one.
“When I watch our women’s national team, the reason why I feel extraordinary pride, still to this day when I watch them play is because it is more than just the game,” Wambach said. “These are women who have fought the good fight and won so when you watch these women run around this field and sweat and yell at each other and compete and win, you are seeing possibility. This is not just about women’s soccer. This is happening to women in every city in every state in every country in every industry, that we have to fight for what we deserve and our women’s national team is a symbol of that and that is why watching women’s soccer is political in its nature because it’s also not just rewiring the little girls’ brains, it’s rewiring the little boys’ brains to see people as people and to honor the things that they have fought and earned.”
The North American bid is currently the only bid on the table to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup, with the official bid book to be submitted in November. The vote to approve the bid is set for the annual FIFA Congress meeting, which will take place in Vancouver on April 30, 2026.
Host cities to be determined While the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica have formalized their intentions to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup, the exact host cities will be decided upon and announced at a later date. Parlow Cone said more than 30 U.S. cities alone are interested and representatives from New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Diego, Orlando, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Nashville, St. Louis and the state of Indiana were amongst those in attendance on Monday, according to a U.S. Soccer spokesperson.
There is currently no timetable for the bidding process for host cities, though the process is expected to kick into full gear sometime after the 2026 men’s World Cup, which the U.S. will cohost with Mexico and Canada. Next summer’s tournament will provide the chance for all parties involved to learn how exactly to stage the 2031 women’s competition, including how many games each country will host and where the knockout matches will take place.
“We’re very fortunate in that we have a test run this coming summer on organizing a World Cup fo 48 teams in multiple countries,” Batson said. “I think we’re excited about using the post-’26 [period] as an opportunity to come together with the host cities, the countries and with FIFA to be able to outline the best approach for 2031. Anytime you do something, you get an opportunity to learn from it and the fact that there’s another World Cup is going to be coming to our collective shores so soon, we get to build from our experiences and so, for sure, there are going to be opportunities to learn and to benefit from this summer.”
FIFA has previously set a minimum capacity requirement of 20,000 for a stadium that would hold a Women’s World Cup group stage match, which means a wide range of stadiums would be in consideration, including the smaller soccer-specific venues that exist across the U.S. chiefly as homes to MLS teams. In the New York area, for example, the list includes the 25,000-capacity Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey, home of the New York Red Bulls, and Etihad Park in Queens, the 25,000-seater that is under construction but is expected to host New York City FC starting in 2027. Parlow Cone, though, promised that the 2031 Women’s World Cup would be the first to achieve equality with the men’s competition in terms of facility size and quality and so larger venues could be in the mix.
“MetLife [Stadium] is still going to be the crown jewel of any bid that we do,” Alex Lasry, the CEO of the FIFA World Cup 2026 New York New Jersey Host Committee, said about the 82,500-seater that will host the men’s World Cup final in 2026. “I imagine we’ll be kind of looking at all three as part of it, whether all three are [included] but I think Cindy said it best, right? We want to make sure that there’s no difference in facilities form the men’s and the women’s bid so MetLife will play a major role in this bid. How they decide to divvy up the many facilities that we have across this region, I’ll leave that up to FIFA and U.S. Soccer but we’re here to bring the World Cup back in 2031.”
Source: CBS Sports | Read the Full Story…
