It appears that after hosting the 2016 European Championships on the men’s side, France can look forward to hosting another major tournament. FIFA announced today that the 2019 Women’s World Cup will be taking place in France [1]. South Korea was the only other country to bid for the 2019 Women’s World Cup, after England, New Zealand, and South Africa all expressed interest, but later announced that they would no longer proceed with the process [2]. The 2019 World Cup will be the first Women’s World Cup hosted by France and only the third Women’s World Cup hosted in Europe [1]. The 2019 edition of the Women’s World Cup will be the 8th edition of the tournament. Germany and the USA have both won the tournament twice, while Norway and Japan have won the tournament once [2]. The 2015 Women’s World Cup, hosted by Japan, begins June 6th.
[1] http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2015/03/19/france-hosting-2019-womens-world-cup
[2]http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/y=2015/m=3/news=france-to-host-the-fifa-women-s-world-cup-in-2019-2567761.htmlt
Cover Photo: Credit to Lauren Ginn
This post is particularly interesting in light of Professor Dubois’ article that we read for discussion last week. It indicated that France had banned women from wearing Hijab on the soccer pitch. Apparently, parts of Canada had done the same. That means that during this year’s world cup, there is a possibility of Hijabs being an issue for Muslim players who chose to wear their headscarves. Additionally, it means that if France does not open their leagues to the possibility of Hijabs on the pitch, there will most definitely be issues at the 2019 world cup. It makes me wonder whose authority will win out in that case: France’s or FIFA’s?
And hopefully, it’ll help France and Europe’s economy, because they have hard time….
The Women’s World Cup has never been played in France, and it will be only the third time (1938 and 1998) the tournament is played in Europe. It will be hard work for France, but they should be very proud! Thanks for sharing this info… we’ll keep an eye on this.