Japan have withdrawn their bid to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, in a boost for the joint Australian and New Zealand entry.
In a statement on Monday, the Japan Football Association (JFA) confirmed their withdrawal from the bidding process and will now throw their support behind the Australasian bid.
“The decision to withdraw from the bid was taken after careful and thorough consideration in the Japan Bid Committee as well as the JFA Executive Committee,” JFA president Kohzo Tashima said.
“Now, we can show the solidarity of (the) Asian football family, to lead to a successful bid.
“Japan will cooperate with FIFA and the host nation(s) to ensure women’s football in the world continues to advance, expand and ascend to a higher level.”
Colombia is the only remaining challenger to the Australia-New Zealand bid, however, in a recent technical evaluation by FIFA, the South Americans didn’t score favourably.
The Colombian bid scored 2.8 out of five according to FIFA’s report, with the Australasian entry ranked the best with 4.1 points.
AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa fully backed the Australia-New Zealand bid on Monday.
“On behalf of the AFC – and the Asian football family – I will be supporting the Australia/New Zealand bid to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023 – and am sure that I will be supported by all the AFC’s FIFA Council Members,” he said.
“The FIFA Evaluation report could not have been clearer on the outstanding sporting infrastructure that will allow the players to perform at their optimum level and are in keeping with the ever-growing profile of this world-class competition.”
“Add to this, the unique nature of the cross-Confederation bid, the fact that this is the first time the Southern Hemisphere will have hosted the tournament and the benefits for the development of the women’s game in Asia-Pacific that this united bid would unlock, then the proposition looks to be the only available choice.”
The FIFA Council will announce the hosts of the tournament on June 25.
