U.S. to host 2031 Women’s World Cup, FIFA president says

U.S. Soccer will bid unopposed for the 2031 Women’s World Cup, and the “path” is clear for the United States to host the tournament, which could expand to feature 48 teams, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Thursday.

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Technically, the U.S. still must “win” a vote at next year’s FIFA Congress, a gathering of the world’s 211 national soccer federations. But that vote will be a foregone conclusion and probably a charade, much like the ones last November that awarded the 2030 and 2034 men’s World Cups to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (2030) and to Saudi Arabia (2034).

The only unknown is whether the U.S. bid will include proposals to hold a small handful of games in other countries throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Multiple sources told Yahoo Sports earlier this month that U.S. Soccer and its counterparts throughout the CONCACAF region were discussing a so-called “regional bid.”

Infantino, speaking Thursday at a gathering of European soccer officials, confirmed that the “bid is from the United States of America and potentially some other CONCACAF members together.”

He also said it is the only bid for the 2031 tournament, and a joint United Kingdom bid — from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — is the only “valid bid” for the 2035 Women’s World Cup.

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Formal bidding documents are due by the end of April, but with both bids unchallenged, the handpicked hosts will have flexibility to modify and finalize plans throughout the year.

FIFA’s, U.S. Soccer’s 2031 Women’s World Cup plans

Despite the regional talks, it’s clear that the vast majority of 2031 Women’s World Cup games will be held in the U.S. — just five years after the vast majority of 2026 men’s World Cup games are held in the U.S.

Canada and Mexico, with 10 games apiece, are co-hosts of that 2026 men’s tournament. They and/or others, such as Jamaica and Costa Rica, could share side stages at the women’s tournament in 2031. But all the main stages will be in the States.

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Details will be hashed out over the coming months. The U.S. Soccer Federation will outline its vision in an official bid book by the end of the year. But rather than competing against other potential host nations, it will be negotiating with FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, which owns and operates World Cups.

FIFA will also negotiate with U.S. cities and stadiums, and eventually select around a dozen venues for the 2031 tournament. Many of the 11 NFL stadiums slated to host 2026 men’s World Cup matches could be on the 2031 program; but, people familiar with the planning told Yahoo Sports, others are also keen to be involved.

Some of the 2026 host cities and stadiums have been frustrated by the one-sided agreements that have governed men’s World Cup preparations. Those frustrations contributed to the withdrawal of U.S. Soccer’s joint bid with Mexico for the 2027 Women’s World Cup — which ultimately went to Brazil, via a FIFA vote last spring.

Over the 11 months since that decision, however, officials at U.S. Soccer, FIFA, and elsewhere have come closer to agreement on what U.S. Soccer initially called “an integrated partnership model that brings host cities, stadiums, partners and FIFA together, allowing the ecosystem to collectively tap into greater economic benefits and drive the women’s game forward” — rather than the current model, which allows FIFA to reap most of the benefits.

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FIFA’s confidence in those negotiations, and in the financial potential of the U.S. market, led its ruling council and its president, Gianni Infantino, to essentially rig the 2031 bidding process in America’s favor. After opaque discussions, and with vague justifications, FIFA announced in early March that only countries from CONCACAF and Africa would be eligible to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup; only countries from Europe and Africa would be eligible to host the 2035 edition; and they only had until March 31 at 11 a.m. ET to formally express their interest in bidding.

Three days after that deadline, FIFA spokespeople still had not commented on which countries expressed interested. But Infantino said Thursday: “We received one bid for ’31 and one bid — valid bid, I should add — for ’35.”

Other potential hosts ‘disappointed’

Publicly, other nations had expressed interest in bidding. South Africa’s soccer federation had, on multiple occasions, talked up a bid for the 2031 Women’s World Cup. Spain’s soccer president said just last week that his country would bid jointly with Portugal and Morocco for the 2035 tournament.

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But Infantino — who is described by people in the soccer world as an autocratic, even “Trumpian” leader — pushed ahead with his apparent plan for both tournaments.

“The path is there for the Women’s World Cup to be taking place in ’31 and ’35 in some great countries and some great nations to boost even more the women’s football movement,” Infantino said Thursday.

South Africa’s soccer federation, meanwhile, did not respond to multiple emails this week seeking comment.

The president of Japan’s soccer federation, which was barred from bidding by FIFA’s decree, said in a March statement that, “as we had been aiming to bid for the 2031 WWC, this is very disappointing news.”

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It’s unclear why Infantino did not consider the Spain-led bid, or what he meant when he said there was only one “valid” bid. A FIFA spokesman did not provide an immediate answer when asked.

More Women’s World Cup expansion

Infantino also said Thursday that “our idea” is to expand the Women’s World Cup to 48 teams — up from 32 teams in 2027 and 2023, 24 in 2019 and 2015, and 16 in 2011.

That plan will be discussed by the FIFA Council, Infantino said. But, after months of talk that expansion was likely, the decision seems to have been made.

It could be ratified as soon as next month when the 37-member Council meets ahead of FIFA’s annual congress, where the presidents of all 211 FIFA member associations — the national soccer federations — gather and typically go along with whatever Infantino says.