August 13 – Football Australia chief executive James Johnson has played down speculation about a possible Australian bid for the 2030 or 2034 World Cup but says it is still the country’s goal to be hosts.
In a Zoom press conference, Johnson was asked about media reports that Australia was lining up another bid following the shambles of the 2022 campaign that received just one vote.
“The next time we can realistically host the World Cup is in 2034,” Johnson said, suggesting the 2030 tournament was likely to go to Europe or South America.
“Just to be clear – we’re not bidding for the World Cup [at this stage]. It’s an aspiration [for us], it’s part of the vision. But the way these competitions get won is the conversations behind closed doors that start a decade before.”
Australia is jointly hosting the women’s World Cup in 2023 with New Zealand and Johnson said that would give an indication of how well prepared the country was to host the men’s event.
“If we can deliver the best Women’s World Cup it does give you a better chance to host more (international) competitions.”
“There’s a trend. Look at Canada, which hosted the women’s World Cup in 2015 and 11 years later they’re going to host the men’s World Cup with the US (and Mexico).”
Australia this month pulled out of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England and forcing the tournament to be rescheduled for 2022 after pressure was put on players by clubs in the NRL (the leading league globally in the sport) not to turn out for their countries. Rugby League is the country’s leading sport. The speed and duplicity with which Australia’s Rugby League officials handled that scandal will unlikely be lost on any negotiation with the country for hosting the biggest event in world sport.
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