
FILE PHOTO: Bennett Bailey, Lydia Monyepao, Linda Zwane and Tumi Dlamini during the South Africa bid committee announcement for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 at SAFA House on June 17, 2023. PICTURE: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
SYDNEY: South Africa is up against Brazil and joint bidders of not only Mexico and the USA but also Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) is pushing for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be hosted in South Africa. SAFA delegates seek to impress a FIFA delegation at the ongoing 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
The SAFA delegation comprises SAFA president Dr Danny Jordaan, SAFA chief executive officer (CEO) Lydia Monyepao, SAFA women’s head Romaney Pinnock, the 2027 bidding committee chair Tumi Dlamini and bid lead Russell Paul.
South Africa is up against Brazil and joint bidders of not only Mexico and the United States of America (USA), but also Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Therefore, the South African delegation would have to pull every trick they know to pull this off.
Jordaan said they seek to impress FIFA on what hosting the tournament would do for the African continent.
“We will put our case through, that this is Africa’s time and that we have all what it takes to host a very successful World Cup. We have done it before and we want to do it for the continent once more,” he explained, as quoted by Safa.net.
FIFA will host both a bidding workshop and an observer programme for the bidding nations this week in Australia as the current tournament continues.
According to FIFA, the bidders are expected to submit their bids by 08 December 2023. Thereafter, an evaluation process, which would include on-sites inspection visits of the bidding countries, will begin.
The 2027 Women’s World Cup hosts will be decided through a public vote during a FIFA Congress in May 2024.