Dutch, German & Belgian football submit joint bid for 2027 Women’s World Cup

The Dutch, German, and Belgian football associations officially entered their joint bid to host the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup. “We are ready!” the Belgian RBFA, Dutch KNVB, and German DFB tweeted after submitting their bid.

In 2020, the three associations were the first to express their ambition to organize the tournament together and are now also the first candidate to officially register for the bidding procedure, the KNVB said. They do so under the motto Breaking New Ground. “Where the three letters BNG (not entirely coincidentally) represent the names of the three countries,” the KNVB said.

“The popularity of women’s football in the Netherlands has skyrocketed after the European Championship in 2017. Since then, the Oranje Women have become an integral part of Dutch football,” KNVB secretary-general Gijs de Jong said. “We want to use this momentum with our joint bid and give women’s football a new impulse.”

“Our ambition is to provide the best sporting conditions for the players and a unique atmosphere for our Oranje fans,” De Jong said. “We’ll focus on the increasing importance of organizing major events as sustainably and responsibly as possible.”

Both the Netherlands and Germany qualified for the 2023 World Cup, which will take place in Australia and New Zealand, by finishing at the top of their qualification groups. The Belgian team finished second in theirs but was knocked out in a play-off against Portugal. Belgium’s Tessa Wullaert even topped the table for goal scorers during qualification matches, with 17.

The Dutch women’s team finished as the runner-up in the last World Cup. The Leeuwinnen lost 2-0 to the United States in the final in France. The two teams will face each other in a rematch during the group stage of the 2023 tournament.