FFA looks for significant Federal Government backing for 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup bid

Football Federation Australia (FFA) is looking for substantial funding to secure the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, urging Federal and State Governments to support the bid.

With the reported costs of staging the event set to be approximately twice that of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, which cost $60 million, the FFA’s research suggest the that Governments will need to invest more than four times that amount to host the 2023 event.

Commenting on the need for backing, FFA Chief Executive David Gallop stated “it will take a substantial investment, we saw that with the (winning 2015) Asian Cup (bid), we need Federal and state governments to get on board.

“But it will deliver close to $500 million in economic benefit for the country, so there’s a lot of value in this proposition.

“We’re talking about many millions of dollars (government support) but we’re talking about a worthwhile investment.”

While staging the tournament is unlikely to require any stadiums to undergo major upgrades, the costs of staging the event will likely centre around upgrades to training centres, travel, administration and infrastructure.

Along with the eight other bids - Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and a joint South and North Korea bid - FFA will take part in a bid workshop run by FIFA during June’s women’s World Cup in France, where they will likely present their bid blueprint to FIFA.