The Tasmanian Football Community has awoken to exciting news, with Australia and New Zealand officially announced as the host of the next FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 bringing with it the possibility of World Cup Football on Tasmanian soil.
The joint Australia/New Zealand AsOne2023 bid, beat out the bid from Colombia in a 23-12 vote that took place in a meeting of FIFA delegates overnight.
Football Tasmania CEO Matt Bulkeley said the successful Australian/New Zealand bid would help take women’s football to the next level in Tasmania.
“27 per cent of all Tasmanian football players are female, meaning Tasmania already has one of the highest levels of female participation in the country.
“Our short-term goal is to see female participation rise to 30 per cent of our total registration base and having the FIFA Women’s World Cup played in Australia will go a long way to helping achieve this.
“No matter where it’s held, every four years we see a great spike in new girls signing up to play football off the back of Women’s World Cup.
“We’re optimistic that following this exciting announcement, female football in Tasmania will see an even bigger spike in participation than usual.
“The Matildas are already one of Australia’s favourite sporting teams and have demonstrated their ability to inspire young girls, and boys too, to play football and follow their dreams of wearing the green and gold.
“Who knows, having the World Cup on Australian shores might even help Tasmania uncover its next Matilda.”
This will be the first ever co-confederation hosted FIFA World Cup, the first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in the Asia-Pacific region, and the first ever WWC to be held in the southern hemisphere.
Launceston’s UTAS Stadium was nominated as one of 12 potential sites to be used, with the final stadium decision to be made by FIFA at a later date.