Brazil to host Women’s World Cup in 2027
After being elected host country by the International Football Federation (FIFA), Brazil will host the Women’s World Cup in 2027. The election took place on Friday (May 17) during the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand.
The South American nation won out over a joint bid from Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Brazil, which has hosted two editions of the Men’s World Cup, received 119 votes, while the European candidacy garnered 78.
Rating
Brazil’s bid had already been the best rated by FIFA officials, who carried out the inspection in February and produced a hundred-page report. Brazil achieved a score of four (of a maximum five), while the German, Dutch, and Belgian bid reached 3.7. The document released early in May highlighted the stadiums chosen for the event as well as the support from the federal government.
“The decision announced by FIFA this evening will have a major positive impact on Brazilian women’s football and on the lives of millions of women in Brazil. In addition to investing in the World Cup, the entire women’s football production chain in Brazil and South America will take a huge leap forward in development,” Ednaldo Rodrigues, president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), said in a statement on the organization’s website.
The Brazilian delegation in Bangkok also included former players Aline Pellegrino (currently CBF Women’s Competitions Manager) and Formiga (the only player to have competed in seven World Cups) and striker Kerolin (of the Brazilian squad and the North Carolina Courage in the US). The group also included consultants Ricardo Trade, Valesca Araújo, Jacqueline Barros, and Manuela Biz, as well as Sports Minister André Fufuca.
“I’d like to congratulate all the women who work and who have worked—the pioneers [as the first players to represent the women’s national team are known] as well as the current players—for this World Cup in 2027. This is a victory for women’s football. I’m sure we have the potential to make it the biggest Women’s World Cup in history,” Aline Pellegrino, who played for Brazil in the 2004 and 2007 World Cups, was quoted as saying on the CBF website.
“I also dedicate this victory to our brothers in Rio Grande do Sul, which will certainly be one of the host states for the 2027 Women’s World Cup. I want to reiterate the commitment of President Lula and the federal government to help rebuild the state. We will spare no effort in helping our people get back on their feet in the shortest possible time and celebrate other victories for Brazil together,” Fufuca wrote on X.
Dates and venues
The 2027 Women’s World Cup will run from June 24 to July 25. Ten of the 12 stadiums from the Men’s World Cup in 2014 will be used. The exceptions are the Arena das Dunas, in Natal, and the Ligga Arena (Arena da Baixada), in Curitiba.
The opening match and the final will be played at Maracanã, in Rio de Janeiro. The other stages are Neo Química Arena, in São Paulo; Mané Garrincha, in Brasília; Mineirão, in Belo Horizonte; Arena Fonte Nova Betting House, in Salvador; Beira-Rio, in Porto Alegre; Arena da Amazônia, in Manaus; Arena Pantanal, in Cuiabá; Arena Castelão, in Fortaleza; and Arena Pernambuco, in São Lourenço da Mata, in the metropolitan region of Recife.
History
The 2027 Women’s World Cup will be the tenth edition of the tournament. Before coming to Australia and New Zealand in 2023, the competition was hosted by China, Sweden, the US, Germany, Canada, and France.
Spain is the reigning world champion, joining the US, Germany, Japan, and Norway as the teams to have lifted the coveted FIFA trophy. The US have won the most titles (4), followed by Germany, who have bagged it twice.
As the host country, Brazil has a guaranteed place in the World Cup, being one of the only teams to have participated in every Women’s Cup in history—along with Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Norway, Sweden, and the US. The Canarinho team—as they are commonly called, in reference to their canary bird maskot—are looking for an unprecedented title, having come up short in 2007 in China, when they came second to the Germans in the final.
Despite never having claimed the women’s trophy, Brazil have the top scorer in the history of the World Cup for both men and women. Marta has scored 17 goals in six editions, one more than Germany’s Miroslav Klose. The record was set in France in 2019 with a goal against Italy in Brazil’s 1–0 win in the group stage. In the World Cup runners-up campaign in 2007, Marta was the top scorer, boasting a total of seven goals.
At the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Brazil crashed out in the first round. After opening with a 4–0 win over Panama, the team led by Sweden’s Pia Sundhage lost 2–1 to France and drew goalless with Jamaica. Spain went on to win the title for the first time. The poor campaign led to the departure of the coach, who was replaced by Arthur Elias.
“Brazil, in addition to its people’s enormous passion for football, has the greatest player of all time, a runner-up in the World Cup, an international tradition in women’s football, and has been making a series of investments in the sport in recent years by the CBF, federations, and clubs. This is a unique moment. We’re all going to join efforts over the next three years to achieve our great goal of winning the World Cup in our own country, thus inspiring and realizing the dreams of so many children, women, supporters, and fans of our national team,” Arthur Elias told the CBF website.
