The football associations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have officially launched and released more details about their joint bid for the 2035 Women’s World Cup.
If the bid is successful, it would be the first football World Cup hosted in the UK since 1966, and the largest single-sport event ever staged in the country.
The bid includes 22 proposed stadiums – 16 in England, three in Wales, two in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland – across 16 host cities.
Organisers claim it would be the most accessible tournament ever, with 63 million people living within two hours of a proposed venue.
They predict the tournament would generate 4.5 million ticket sales and have a projected global TV audience of 3.5 billion.
The tournament would involve 104 matches contested by 48 teams over 39 days, with 48 team base camp training sites, 82 venue-specific training sites and 32 FIFA Fan Festival Sites proposed.
In April, FIFA president Gianni Infantino revealed that the home nations had submitted the only valid bid for tournament.
In a joint statement, the CEOs of the various football associations, said: “We are proud of the growth that we’ve driven in recent years across the women’s and girls’ game.”
They added that: “A Women’s World Cup in the UK has the power to turbo charge the women’s and girls’ game both in the UK and globally.”
Where would the matches be played?
The bid details the host cities and stadiums as follow:
• Belfast – The Clearer Twist National Stadium at Windsor Park
• Birmingham – The Sports Quarter Stadium and Villa Park
• Brighton & Hove – The American Express Stadium
• Bristol – Ashton Gate
• Cardiff – Cardiff City Stadium and Principality Stadium
• Edinburgh – Easter Road
• Glasgow – Hampden Park
• Leeds – Elland Road
• Liverpool – The Hill Dickinson Stadium
• London – Chelsea FC Stadium, Emirates Stadium, Selhurst Park, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley Stadium connected by EE
• Manchester – Etihad Stadium
• Trafford – Old Trafford
• Newcastle – St James’ Park
• Nottingham – The City Ground
• Sunderland – Stadium of Light
• Wrexham – STōK Racecourse
However, some of the stadiums mentioned above were merely the ones put forward in the official bid and are likely to change after the construction of new stadiums are completed.
