Women’s World Cup host Australia eyes men’s version in 2034

Australia is interested in holding the men’s World Cup in 2034, football’s governing body in the country said Friday, as it looks to build off the momentum of hosting the women’s version.

Football Australia is keen to use the experience of staging the biggest-ever Women’s World Cup, which it is sharing with New Zealand, to put on more major tournaments.

Chief executive James Johnson told reporters that they are “looking at” both the expanded Club World Cup and the men’s World Cup.

“Our vision is to be local and global. And the way that we can be at our best in Australia is when we’re bringing big global football content, the biggest events in the world, back to our local communities,” he said.

“We’re seeing that right now with the Women’s World Cup, so we see the success of the Women’s World Cup as being a stepping stone towards bidding for other competitions.

“There’s the Club World Cup in 2029 that we’re going to take a look at and then there’s the men’s World Cup in 2034 that we’re also going to look at as well.”

Asked by AFP to expand on Football Australia’s ambitions of hosting the 2034 World Cup, Johnson added: “Australia will no doubt host a men’s World Cup one day.

“And what better way to do that than on the back of the best-ever Women’s World Cup.”

Johnson used the example of Canada, which hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and is now set to stage the next men’s World Cup along with the United States and Mexico.

“I think that’s a very good blueprint,” he said.

“And what we can learn from the Canadians is that if you host big, major tournaments, organisations like FIFA get comfortable to give you more.”

Australia is already set for a bumper few years of major sports events, including hosting the Olympics in 2032.