U.S. to host 2031 Women's World Cup, FIFA president says

U.S. Soccer will bid unopposed for the 2031 Women's World Cup, and the "path" is clear for the United States to host the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Thursday.

Technically, the U.S. still must "win" a vote at next year's FIFA Congress, a gathering of the world's 211 national soccer federations. But that vote will be a foregone conclusion and probably a charade, much like the ones last November that awarded the 2030 and 2034 men's World Cups to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay (2030) and to Saudi Arabia (2034).

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The only unknown is whether the U.S. bid will include proposals to hold a small handful of games in other countries throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Multiple sources told Yahoo Sports earlier this month that U.S. Soccer and its counterparts throughout the CONCACAF region were discussing a so-called "regional bid."

Infantino, speaking at a gathering of European soccer officials, confirmed that the bidwould be the only one for 2031, and said that the it "is from the United States of America and potentially some other CONCACAF members together."

The vast majority of the games, though, will be held in the U.S. — just five years after the vast majority of 2026 men's World Cup games are held in the U.S.

Canada and Mexico, with 10 games apiece, are co-hosts of that 2026 men's tournament. They and/or others, such as Jamaica and Costa Rica, could share side stages at the women's tournament in 2031. But all the main stages will be in the States.

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Details will be hashed out over the coming months. The U.S. Soccer Federation will outline its vision in an official bid book by the end of the year. But rather than competing against other potential host nations, it will be negotiating with FIFA, soccer's global governing body, which owns and operates the Women's World Cup.

FIFA will also negotiate with U.S. cities and stadiums, and eventually select around a dozen venues for the 2031 tournament. Many of the 11 NFL stadiums slated to host 2026 men's World Cup matches could be on the 2031 program; but, people familiar with the planning told Yahoo Sports, others are also keen to be involved.

Some of the 2026 host cities and stadiums have been frustrated by the one-sided agreements that have governed men's World Cup preparations. Those frustrations contributed to the withdrawal of U.S. Soccer's joint bid with Mexico for the 2027 Women's World Cup — which ultimately went to Brazil, via a FIFA vote last spring.

Over the 11 months since that decision, however, officials at U.S. Soccer, FIFA, and elsewhere have come closer to agreement on what U.S. Soccer initially called "an integrated partnership model that brings host cities, stadiums, partners and FIFA together, allowing the ecosystem to collectively tap into greater economic benefits and drive the women’s game forward" — rather than the current model, which allows FIFA to reap most of those benefits.

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FIFA's confidence in those negotiations, and in the financial potential of the U.S. market, led its ruling council and its president, Gianni Infantino, to essentially rig the 2031 bidding process in America's favor. After opaque discussions, and with vague justifications, FIFA announced in early March that only countries from CONCACAF and Africa would be eligible to host the 2031 Women’s World Cup; only countries from Europe and Africa would be eligible to host the 2035 edition; and they only had until March 31 at 5 p.m. ET to formally express their interest in bidding.

Three days after that deadline, FIFA still had not commented on which countries expressed interested. But Infantino said Thursday: "We received one bid for '31 and one bid, valid bid, I should add, for '35."

The 2031 bid is from the U.S., and the 2035 bid from the United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Therefore, although South Africa had publicly expressed interest in bidding for the 2031 tournament, and Spain last month had publicly expressed interest in the 2035 tournament, the future of the Women's World Cup is all but decided.

"The path is there for the Women's World Cup to be taking place in '31 and '35 in some great countries and some great nations to boost even more the women's football movement," Infantino said.