Football Association boss Mark Bullingham wants to include Manchester United’s proposed new stadium in the United Kingdom’s bid for the 2035 Women’s World Cup.
The joint Home Nations bid was confirmed as the sole candidate for the tournament by FIFA chief Gianni Infantino at UEFA’s Congress in Belgrade on Thursday.
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With the Women’s World Cup likely to expand from 32 teams to 48 teams in 2031, the UK will need at least 16 stadiums for what would be a 104-game competition. And Bullingham would like one of those venues to be Old Trafford’s replacement.
“We’re going to have conversations with (Manchester United) and work out if they can be part of it or not,” the FA chief executive told reporters in the Serbian capital.
“We’ve got a number of different stadia being built in the country, potentially Manchester United, potentially Birmingham (City), and with a 10-year horizon you’ve got to work out exactly where you’ll be then.
“There will be lots of conversations to be had, understanding timescales for stadium-builds, understanding what people want, and knitting that together.”
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe announced last month that the Premier League side intend to build a new 100,000-capacity stadium on a site adjacent to Old Trafford. The British billionaire said he thought the project could be completed within five years, with a budget of £2billion.
Bullingham said the joint bid from the English, Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh football associations would have no difficulty in accommodating a 48-team event.
“We’re really well set up for that, you’ve then got to have 16 stadiums,” he said.
“We’d be happy either way but we’d be really comfortable with 48 teams. It just creates more impact across the whole country.”
Unlike the combined British and Irish bid for the men’s European Championship in 2028, this project does not include the Republic of Ireland but Northern Ireland should be able to stage games at their Windsor Park home.
With a current capacity of 18,500, the Belfast venue is too small for UEFA’s requirements but will not require too much work to meet FIFA’s minimum requirement for a Women’s World Cup of 20,000 seats.
Belfast’s Windsor Park, home to Northern Ireland, should be able to host matches at the tournament (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
In regard to the rest of the bid, the Welsh FA will be hopeful that Wrexham can continue to upgrade their Racecourse Ground, the world oldest international stadium that is still in use. It has a capacity of just over 13,000 at present but the club’s celebrity owners, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, have already started to redevelop the ground.
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Asked if Wembley is the most likely venue for the final, Bullingham said: “We have still got to work that through, fundamentally it’s a FIFA decision, but our assumption would be that.”
The next step for the bid is to provide FIFA with the financial guarantees, particularly around tax issues, the governing body demands from host governments. They must be given by the end of April.
And just as previous sole-bidders for FIFA tournaments, such as Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup bid, have still had to go through a formal bidding process, the UK will have to submit a compliant bid to FIFA in November, which would then have to be approved at a FIFA Congress in 2026, along with the U.S.-led bid for the 2031 competition.
(Manchester United/Foster + Partners)
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