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Oly soccer qualifiers a boost for Cup bid

3 minute read

Australia has enhanced its joint bid for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup by stepping in to host Olympic qualifiers at short notice, FFA boss James Johnson says.

Football Federation Australia boss James Johnson is confident Australia has proven itself a "safe pair of hands" to co-host the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Speaking ahead of inspection visits next week, the former FIFA executive says stepping in to host Olympic qualifiers for coronavirus-hit China has further enhanced their joint bid with New Zealand.

And Johnson believes the last-minute rescue won't go unnoticed in the corridors of power at FIFA headquarters.

"What I've learned is that we can deliver a competition at short notice under extreme conditions," he said in Sydney on Tuesday.

"I think if you're sitting in Zurich and you want to ensure that you have a safe pair of hands to look after one of your top competitions, I think that what we've delivered will actually provide FIFA with a lot of confidence.

"If we can deliver a tournament like Olympic qualifiers at short notice when we have issues like the coronavirus surrounding the competition, I think we can deliver any competition and deliver it well."

Defender Alanna Kennedy, who skippered Australia in Monday's 6-0 rout of Thailand, said the qualifiers had given the Matildas a taste of what a home World Cup could look like.

"To be able to host such a big tournament would be amazing for us here in Australia and for our game," she said.

"We've got our fingers crossed that it's a successful bid."

With the Women's World Cup expanding to a 32-team competition for 2023, Australia was forced to abandon its initial bid to host the tournament alone.

FFA turned to New Zealand, striking an 11th-hour arrangement for a joint trans-Tasman bid before the December deadline.

Despite the tricky logistics of staging an event of the World Cup's scale across two nations, Johnson doesn't believe it will scare off FIFA - pointing to the United States, Canada and Mexico's bid for the men's World Cup in 2026.

"They were successful against a single bid so I actually see it as a strength of our bid," he said.

Unlike that three-nation bid, Australia and New Zealand would make history as the first co-confederation hosts of the tournament - men's or women's - should they get the nod.

It would also be the first time a Women's World Cup has been held in the Asia-Pacific region or southern hemisphere.

But Johnson is counting on their two-nation strategy to win out over lone bids from rivals Brazil, Colombia and Japan.

"If you look at FIFA 2.0's new philosophy it's about spreading football to all parts of the world," he said.

"I think spreading it amongst two countries and two confederations goes in that direction."

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