NZ Football keen to host World Cup

New Zealand Football wants to host the Fifa Women’s World Cup in 2023 – and it might be the last opportunity it has to do so.

Interim chief executive Andrew Pragnell confirmed it will submit an expression of interest by March 15, the deadline set by Fifa as it launched the bidding process last week.

Three days after that, Fifa will tell those interested what is required for them to host the showpiece event of the women’s game, which is when NZ Football will find out if its dream is realistic.

‘‘There’s strong interest from our side,’’ Pragnell said this week. ‘‘The real telling date will be the 18th of March, when Fifa will release the bid documents.

‘‘That’s really important for us, because the clincher will be ensuring that our stadiums are fit for purpose and meet the bid specifications. We’re really excited and interested, but the 18th of March and what’s in the bid documents will be really critical.’’

New Zealand has already hosted three age-group World Cups – the under-17 men’s event in 1999, the under-17 women’s event in 2008, and the under-20 Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 bidding timeline:

March 16, 2019: Deadline for associations to express interest. March 18, 2019: Fifa dispatches bid registration documents to interested associations. April 16, 2019: Deadline to submit completed bid registration documents. April 18, 2019: Fifa dispatches hosting documents to associations that have registered bids. October 4, 2019: Deadline to submit bid book, hosting agreement, and other hosting documents. March 2020: Fifa council to vote on hosts.

men’s event in 2015 .

The last three hosts of the women’s World Cup have hosted the preceding under-20 event as part of their preparations, though Fifa has not confirmed that will be the case this time around.

Regardless, the under-20 women’s event, which currently consists of 16 teams, is a smaller logistical exercise than the 24-team under-20 men’s event, which leaves the 24-team women’s World Cup as a logical next step.

NZ Football was interested in hosting this year’s event, which was awarded to France, but withdrew at an early stage, and had signalled it was looking to 2023 as early as 2015.