Music: {allcanada} Canada awarded 2015 Women's WC

Thursday, March 3, 2011

{allcanada} Canada awarded 2015 Women's WC

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ZURICH, Switzerland -- The Women's World Cup is coming to Canada in 2015.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter confirmed Canada as host of the 24-country soccer tournament at a news conference at FIFA House on Thursday morning.

"FIFA can count on Canada," said Dominic Maestracci, president of the Canadian Soccer Association.

There was little suspense leading up to the announcement. Canada had been up against Zimbabwe but the Africans pulled out earlier this week.

Canada was runner-up to Germany to host this summer's tournament.

The CSA said seven candidate cities were included in its bid submission: Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Moncton, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Toronto, home to BMO Field and Toronto FC, is a surprising omission.

Official host cities will be announced in the future following FIFA's site inspections.

Canada will also host the FIFA Women's U-20 tournament in 2014, which will serve as a test event for the World Cup.

The federal government has committed up to $15 million to the tournaments.

"Hosting these tournaments will further enhance Canada's reputation as a sporting country and allow us to showcase several cities to a global television audience," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement.

"Like all fans, we look forward to cheering for our outstanding women's teams at home, in 2014 and 2015," he added.

The Canadian women are currently ranked ninth in the world.

The Women's World Cup will expand from 16 to 24 countries and from 32 to 52 matches in 2015. That's the same size as the FIFA men's U-20 tournament Canada hosted in 2007.

Canada also served as host of the men's U-17 (1987) and women's U-20 (2002) tournaments.

"We have the stadium infrastructure, the support and the experience as demonstrated by previous FIFA competitions hosted in Canada," said association general secretary Peter Montopoli.

"The Canadian Soccer Association is pleased to accept this honour today on behalf of the nearly 400,000 women players, participants in our beautiful game in our country ... We look forward to welcoming the world and its game to Canada in 2015."

Note: It was expected that CONCACAF would get an additional qualification spot for the men's World Cup in 2014, giving Canada a better chance but FIFA did not announce any changes to the allocation of spots for the men's side.