South Africa has been awarded the right to host the 2016 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup.

 

This follows a two-day meeting by the FIFA Executive Committee in Costa do Sauipe, Bahia near San Salvador in Brazil.

 

The announcement was made on Thursday, 05 December 2013.

 

Details of South Africa’s hosting of the U20 football showpiece will be revealed at a later stage.

 

“This is good news indeed for us as an Association and for the entire country. We are quite delighted with the news from FIFA. This clearly shows that the successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has given South Africa strong credentials at FIFA and makes this country an almost automatic choice in the hosting of major events,” said SAFA President Dr Danny Jordaan from Brazil where he is attending the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup draw which will take place on Friday, 6 December.

 

”The hosting of the FIFA U20 World Cup is a tremendous boost for women’s football in South Africa and shows the high regard that FIFA holds our country.”

 

The FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup is a precursor to the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

 

 

 

Canada is hosting both the FIFA 2014 Women’s World Cup and the FIFA 2015 U20 Women’s World Cup.

 

”Hosting the 2016 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup event has now put South Africa in an advantageous position to host the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. We are confident that when the bidding opens we will be in a stronger position,” added Dr Jordaan.

 

The news comes on the day that the South African U20 Women’s National Team departed for Tanzania for the second round first leg qualifier of the 2014 FIFA U20 World Cup.

 

”Our U20 Women’s National Team is currently in Tanzania and with only two teams going to the World Cup we are confident that they will do well to qualify for the 2014 event where they will have gained a lot of experience before hosting the world in 2016. This is part of our strategy to build women’s football. The U20 team will be Banyana Banyana in 2019 and this will have give them good grounding for the 2019 World Cup,” concluded Dr Jordaan.

 

Contrary to certain media reports, South Africa did not bid to host the 2017 Under FIFA World Cup.

 

Here are other hosting decisions taken by the FIFA Executive Committee.

 

 

 

•    FIFA U-17 Women‘s World Cup 2016:                                 Jordan 

 

•    FIFA U-20 Women‘s World Cup 2016:                South Africa 

 

•    FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017:                                     India 

 

•    FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017:                                     Korea Republic 

 

•    FIFA Congress 2016:                                                   Mexico City, Mexico 

 

•    FIFA Congress 2017:                                                   Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

 

The next meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee will be held at the Home of FIFA in Zurich in March 2014.