FIFA, Australia downplay reports of 2023 Women’s World Cup schedule change

“No changes to the dates of the competition are foreseen”

FIFA and Football Australia on Friday both denied a report that the 2023 Women’s World Cup could be delayed by months.

L’Equipe reported Thursday that FIFA had approached “European football leaders” to discuss possibly moving the tournament from its current planned footprint of July 20-August 20, 2023, to sometime later in the year, possibly during the Australian summer. FIFA’s concern, per the report, mainly stemmed from the idea that European television broadcasters had shown underwhelming levels of interest in the rights to show the tournament.

However, a FIFA spokesperson and Football Australia both told the Sydney Morning Herald that there are no current plans to implement the change.

“After a successful ‘One Year to Go’ event, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is scheduled to kick off on 20 July 2023. No changes to the dates of the competition are foreseen,” said the FIFA spokesperson, alluding to recent events in Australia and New Zealand celebrating the tournament being a year away.

There have been no other indicators of a push to move the tournament, and doing so at this stage would cause quite a bit of turmoil in the global soccer calendar. While such a move might benefit certain leagues—the NWSL, for example, would probably find it easier to not have a World Cup mid-season—it would likely be a problem for more countries than not. On top of that, the Australian summer is notoriously hot, whereas the winter climate tends to be more conducive for soccer.

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