CAF President Patrice Motsepe says South Africa, just like Morocco, will get support from all 54-member associations in its bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027.
South Africa is the only member association rom Africa that has expressed an interest to host the World Cup in 2027, having received support from government such as the South African Sports Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and also from the previous Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture Nathi Mthethwa and his replacement Zizi Kodwa.
Motsepe said all 54-member associations decided to support Morocco in its bid to host the joint FIFA World Cup in 2030 alongside two Iberian nations – Spain and Portugal.
Morocco showed interest as it is close to both countries – the north border in Africa, which makes it easy to travel and a viable option to host the FIFA premier event.
The mining mogul said all member associations will do the same by supporting Mzansi in its bid to host the Women’s World Cup, with South Africa aiming to become the first nation in Africa to host both men and women’s World Cup.
“You have to look at how it benefits various other countries on the continent because part of my focus is to allow countries like South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Senegal to keep growing the infrastructure and developing because they have to represent us and compete against the best in the world,” said Motsepe.
“You have countries who have poor infrastructures, poor resources because the talent is in all the 54-member association countries on the African continent. So you are asking the minister (Zizi Kodwa) about hosting the Women’s World Cup, they are going to get support from other members.”
The FIFA bidding process is as follows:
- FIFA to launch a bidding process on 21 April 2023.
- 19 May 2023 SAFA to complete and submit bidding agreement 23 May 2023 and FIFA will dispatch bidding and hosting documents
- August 2023 FIFA convene bid workshop and observers program during Women’s World Cup Australia/ New Zealand
- 8 December 2023 submission of Bid Book to FIFA
- February 2024 FIFA’s Inspection team visits bidding countries
- May 2024 publication of FIFA’s evaluation report second quarter 2024 ranking of bids
- (same month) second quarter 2024 decision and appointment of the host country for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027.
On Morocco getting the support from other 54-member associations it was non-negotiable in its bid for the World Cup, Motsepe said:
“As I said for the first time when Morocco publicly announced candidature for its FIFA elections (in Kigali last month) that I had already been approached by Egypt and we had a lot of other discussions.
“The decision that was taken by the CAF executive committee last week is the right decision (to support Morocco for its joint bidding for the FIFA 2030 World Cup) and we are absolutely satisfied that we have to engage and start lobbying very soon.
“Because if you keep postponing, keep delaying, the chances of the African nation wanting to host the World Cup becomes very remote.”
