2031 Women’s World Cup: USA Plans Bid with Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica

The United States added Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica to its proposal to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup, the only bid FIFA is considering for the tournament.

The U.S., a four-time winner of the tournament, announced the additions Monday.

The U.S. Soccer Federation and Mexican Football Federation withdrew their joint bid to host the 2027 tournament in April 2024 and said they intended to focus on staging the 2031 event. Two weeks later, FIFA selected Brazil for 2027.

FIFA said this past April the USSF was the only bidder for the 2031 tournament as part of a bid with regional partners from North and Central America and the Caribbean to be announced later. A British plan by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland was the sole submission for 2035. FIFA’s formal decision is expected at its congress on April 30 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The U.S. hosted the 1999 tournament, which was expanded from 12 teams to 16, and 1.2 million fans attended the 32 matches. The U.S. also staged the 2003 tournament on four months’ notice after FIFA decided not to stick with the original host, China, where there was an outbreak of the SARS virus. Six venues were used for a schedule that included 15 doubleheaders, and the tournament drew about 680,000.

FIFA increased the field to 24 teams for 2015, 32 for 2023 and 48 for 2031.