Tasmania offers to host 2023 Women’s World Cup

Australia and New Zealand will jointly host the ninth edition of the tournament in nine cities.

Although UTAS stadium was taken off the list of potential stadiums earlier this year, Football Tasmania is optimistic the country can serve as a training base for one of the 32 competing nations and has secured $ 10 million in funding. government for four stadiums, including two in Lanceston. . .

FT Chairman Bob Gordon said $ 3 million has been allocated to Lightwood Park, Kingborough and Devonport’s Valley Road, with $ 2.5 million for Churchill Park in Launceston and $ 1.5 million for Birch Street .

Gordon said the upgrades are necessary to meet FIFA requirements and include improvements to lighting, stadiums, sanitary facilities, screens and changing rooms.

“We have to show FIFA that we can bring all four stadiums to the level required,” said Gordon.

The World Cup is in July-August 2023, but if we’re not ready by the end of next year, FIFA will kick us out.

“The money has been allocated in the state budget and we will continue with all the work because it concerns all the public facilities. Kingborough has already started and Devonport is awaiting the development of an app.

Gordon said the States would participate in the tournament for up to a month and could remain stationed here while traveling between the States for matches.

“It would be an everyday NFL game here for a month,” he said.

As 1,500 young Tasmanian players took part in the annual Launceston Championships this weekend, the Financial Times filmed a promotional video in an attempt to encourage rival teams to use the state as a base.

Outlets include being in a safe and friendly location, within walking distance of downtown hotels and a 10-minute drive to the airport with Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, all within a few hours by plane .

With competitions stretching from Perth to Dunedin, Australia’s east coast is arguably considered the most desirable central location for competing nations.

Gordon said that big countries like the United States, China or Japan might be out of the Tasmanian competition, so marketing will focus on small European countries like the Netherlands, Finland or even Sweden which have reached the semi-finals in three of the last five competitions and reached the semi-finals. Final at this year’s Olympics.

“We will do our best,” he added.

Gordon, who attended the 2002 World Cups in Korea and Japan, said the Australian team spent three weeks at a base camp in Turkey ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where many traveling fans also attended. made the change.

It would be like having an AFL game here everyday for a month

Tasmanian football chief Bob Gordon

“I think some people just don’t have a clue of how many people are coming in, and it’s going to take at least three weeks,” he said.

This event will take place between July 20 and August 20, 2023 and is the first FIFA senior tournament to take place in Oceania.

FIFA announced in April that Launceston, Newcastle and Christchurch missed the host cities, with 64 games in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and Dunedin.

Nine countries initially expressed interest in hosting the World Cup, and Australia and New Zealand won in June 2020 by securing 22 votes to Colombia, second with 13 votes.

The push to improve Churchill Park and Birch Street came when the stadiums – and Windsor Park in Riverside – hosted the famous annual Launceston Championships.

Around 1,500 players from 104 teams played matches in stadiums over three days, sometimes in appalling conditions.

Despite the lack of teams on the continent, the tournament set records, surpassing the 84 teams that participated two years ago.

The event saw exceptional performances from local teams, with Northern Rangers, Launceston City and Launceston United among the top U-16 participants.

Launceston City won all three games in the Under-14 boys ‘group, while the NTJSA representative team won the games in the girls’ group.

Northern Rangers and NTJSA Gold were unbeaten in the U-13 boys’ group, while Launceston United’s teams dominated both groups in the U-10-11.

Two new raised pitches in Churchill Park were not used for the tournament, but they meet the requirements of the FIFA training base.