ZURICH – South Africa are one of nine nations who have put their name forward to host the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup, with the winner set to be announced in March next year.
The other nations in the running are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand, while South Korean officials have claimed that they have been approached by Fifa about the possibility of entering a joint bid along with North Korea.
The fact that SA and Brazil, hosts of the respective 2010 and 2014 men's World Cup events, are involved in the bid for the women's showpiece, opens the possibility that one of these nations could get the nod and make use of the stadiums which costs hundreds of millions of Rands to build a few years back.
Each of the bidding nations have until April 16 this year to lodge their official paperwork with Fifa.
Kids play soccer on an artificial pitch at the Football Centre for Hope in Cape Town's Khayelitsha township, The centre, one of several built by FIFA in South Africa in the run-up to the 2010 Soccer World Cup. Photo: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
South Africa's national senior women's football team, known as Banyana Banyana, will join fellow African nations in Nigeria and Cameroon, among the 24 countries in action at this year's Fifa Women's World Cup in France, starting on June 7.