The 2019 Netball World Cup will be hosted in Liverpool, England Netball announced yesterday. 

“England put in a strong bid and we are confident that they will deliver an outstanding event in an excellent venue in the city of Liverpool,” said the Hon. Molly Rhone, OJ, CD, president of the International Netball Federation (INF), which owns the rights to the tournament.

“It is an exciting time for netball right now, which is growing at an unprecedented rate throughout the world.  We look forward to seeing this growth continue to soar and to working with the organising committee in bringing the INF’s most important event to England in 2019.”

This will be the third time that England has hosted the competition in its 56-year history. Previous locations include Birmingham in 1995 and the very first staging of the tournament in Eastbourne, 1963.

“Having worked with Liverpool to host major global tournaments previously, we have a proven track record of being able to stage such a prestigious event and we look forward to welcoming the netball world to the North-West, said Joanna Adams, CEO of England Netball.

“On behalf of England Netball, I would like to thank all parties who worked with us on securing this bid.

“This is a massive tribute to the wonderful army of volunteers who have helped us to grow the game in our country. Without their support we would never have been in a position to bid for, let alone win, the rights to host a Netball World Cup.”

The 2019 Netball World Cup forms part of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series, which is investing around £40million of National Lottery funding to attract events to Great Britain.

“Through the Gold Event Series the UK is building an international reputation for staging world class major sporting events with its compelling mix of state-of-the-art facilities, great infrastructure and technical know-how as well as its army of experienced volunteers,” said Liz Nicholl, chief executive of UK Sport and a former Chief Executive of England Netball. 

“Netball is thriving with unprecedented growth in participation, support from sponsors and exposure in the media.  Add to this the Government’s strong commitment to promoting women’s sport, and I really do believe that Liverpool offers the perfect platform to help the International Netball Federation develop and grow this fantastic sport, not just in England but globally."

The venue will be the ACC Liverpool, which hosted the World Netball Series in 2011. The World Heritage waterfront site includes the Echo Arena as the competition venue, the Exhibition Centre as the athlete training venue and the BT Convention Centre, which will host the INF Congress.

A new four-star Pullman hotel on the ACC Liverpool site, will be the official INF event hotel.

"The stunning ACC Liverpool will be the perfect stage for the event and we are looking forward to welcoming a global audience of competing nations and putting on a show the sport can be truly proud of," said Joe Anderson, mayor of Liverpool.

FIFA’s Committees for Women’s Football and the Women’s World Cup are proposing to the Executive Committee that the inaugural Women’s Club World Cup should take place in 2017.

Executive Committee member Moya Dodd convened a meeting of the FIFA Task Force for Women’s Football in Zurich on Monday, when the date of 2017 was proposed for the Women’s Club World Cup. 

The Task Force noted that the competition is important “to create an annual showcase of elite women’s football and to provide an incentive not only to clubs, but also to confederations and member associations, to strengthen club football and club structures in their respective regions.”

This proposal is being examined by the Committees for Women’s Football and the Women’s World Cup on Tuesday, before a proposal is to be sent to the Executive Committee.

The FIFA Executive Committee, which decides on the introduction of all new competitions, holds its next meeting on 19-20 March.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced the creation of the Task Force in October 2013 in order to identify and establish priorities for the development of women’s football.

As well as the Women’s Club World Cup, the Task Force also discussed how to implement the ten key development principles for women’s football, which were first discussed at the group’s first meeting a year ago and approved at the 64th FIFA Congress in São Paulo.

“The approval of the ten key principles by the FIFA Congress last June marked a major milestone for the development of women’s football,” said Moya Dodd.

“These principles have laid a foundation from which to build on, sending a clear message to confederations and member associations on what FIFA expects of them to continue growing the women’s game. 

“FIFA is also taking concrete action, for instance the doubling of women’s development funding for the 2015-2018 cycle, and now further progress is being made towards the creation of a FIFA Women’s Club World Cup. All of our efforts need to go in one direction in order to see more women on the football pitch but also involved off the pitch as well.”

Other topics discussed at the Task Force meeting included Futsal, the professionalisation of the women’s game, club licensing, medical issues and strategies to increase female 

HOST CITY: How has the influence of women on sports administration developed throughout your career?

Liz Nicholl: I have held positions at national level in sport for over 30 years, and when I started out the industry was male-dominated and the voice of women in sport was rarely heard.

My breakthrough came as a young CEO of England Netball in the 1980s; my national leadership role placed me in an environment where I was able to see that I was just as good as the majority of individuals in similar, significant roles. I gained confidence from colleagues and I now say to others “Don’t hold yourself back. If someone you respect thinks you can do it, you can!”

Over the years I have seen some progress but it’s been slow. The need for diversity in leadership is now much more widely accepted in business. Change is happening in sport but it is slower and held back by tradition.

At a government level, ministers are more outspoken on equality matters and more people are listening. This national profile and debate is ensuring that the momentum is increasing but there is still a long way to go.

There are now more role models and more signs of change. Baroness Sue Campbell was Chair of UK Sport for over 10 years and now across the five UK, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland government agencies for sport, four or the five CEOs are women.

HOST CITY: How successful is the sports sector at boosting women's representation at executive / senior management level?

Liz Nicholl: When I look across the cohort of CEOs and chairs of National Federations of sport, there are a relatively small number of women – but we are seeing a shift at board level.

There is an expectation placed on funded sports by UK Sport and Sport England that all sport boards should be made up of at least 25 per cent women by 2017. Currently over 90 per cent of the sports we fund have women Board members and the UK Sport Board is made up of 40 per cent women.

HOST CITY: What still needs to be done to make further progress?

Liz Nicholl: We need more women in coaching generally and especially at a high performance level. We are looking into what some of the barriers might be while at the same time providing and a programme to support athletes, with an emphasis on women athletes, transitioning into coaching.

The biggest challenge is the limited media coverage of women’s sport. Better, balanced media coverage would unlock enormous potential and sponsorship and could massively increase the momentum for positive change. We will be hosting the Women’s Hockey World Cup in 2018 and have ambitions for other events to shine the media light more specifically on women in sport.

Personally, as a woman working in an influential role within British sport, I know there is more I could be doing to keep this issue visible and to challenge where I see inappropriate inequalities and I am determined to do so.

Liz Nicholl OBE is the Chief Executive of UK Sport. To read the full interview, register to receive the next issue of HOST CITY magazine

FIFA has sent bidding documents to 31 member associations that have declared their interest in hosting eight tournaments. 

The relevant member associations now have to sign and return the documents before the FIFA Executive Committee begins the process of assigning the hosting rights.

The available events include the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the 2018 U-20 Women’s World Cup, the 2018 U-17 Women’s World Cup and the 2015-2019 Club World Cups. An unprecedented 12 countries have put themselves forward for the 2017 Beach Soccer World Cup.

FIFA has made it clear that it would prefer the 2019 Women’s World Cup and the 2018 U-20 Women’s World Cup to take place in the same country. Four countries have put themselves forward for these two events, namely England, France, Korea Republic, New Zealand and South Africa. 

South Africa has also declared an interest in the 2019 Women’s World Cup, hopeful that its hosting of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in 2016 will enable it to qualify to host the 2019 Women’s World Cup. 

For the 2018 U-17 Women’s World Cup, FIFA has received five declarations of interest, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Finland, Northern Ireland and Sweden. 

The deadline for submitting the hosting agreement together with all the signed bidding documents for all of the women’s events is 31 October 2014. The election of the host nations is scheduled to take place at the first FIFA Executive Committee meeting in 2015.

The 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup has attracted a particularly large pool of associations, with 12 countries hoping to host the tournament: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE and USA. 

All bidding and hosting documents for the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup must be signed and submitted by 1 October 2014. The FIFA Executive Committee will appoint the host at its meeting in December 2014.

FIFA has also opened the bidding process for four editions of the FIFA Club World Cup. India and Japan have put themselves forward for the tournament in 2015 and 2016, while Brazil, Japan and UAE are aiming for 2017 and 2018. 

The deadline for submitting the bidding documents is 25 August 2014 and the host will be selected by the Executive Committee in September 2014.

“FIFA is delighted to see the impressive interest from its member associations in hosting a FIFA competition,” football’s world governing body said in a statement.

Countries interested in hosting a FIFA event are now spoilt for choice. FIFA has invited its 209 member associations to register their interest in the Women’s World Cup 2019, Club World Cups from 2015 to 2018, Beach Soccer World Cup 2017, U-17 Women’s World Cup 2018 and the U-20 Women’s World Cup 2018.

With women’s football growing in popularity in recent years, FIFA will be particularly hopeful of a large number of members applying to host the Women’s events. “The development of football for girls and women remains one of FIFA’s top priorities,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

FIFA said it would prefer the Women’s World Cup and U-20s World Cup events to be hosted in one country. “In principle, FIFA would prefer the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 and the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2018 to be hosted and organised by the same member association.”

The Women’s World Cup 2019 will involve 24 teams, while 16 teams will compete in the U-20 Women’s World Cup 2018. 

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup has grown significantly in stature and significance over the last few editions. Now with 24 teams, it enjoys the second-biggest profile of all FIFA’s flagship events,” FIFA said.

“The FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup is the second most important women’s FIFA event. The so-called ‘springboard for the stars’ tournament serves as a staging post towards the FIFA Women’s World Cup, not only for players but also for the hosts.” 

The Women’s World Cup 2010 in Germany holds the attendance record of 395,295 spectators, achieving an average global in-home audience per live match of 2.8 million. 

The bidding timeline for these women’s competitions requires the member associations that wish to host these events to submit a declaration of interest by 15 April 2014. The deadline for delivery of the hosting agreement together with all the signed bidding documents is 31 October 2014, with the final decision on the hosts currently scheduled to take place at the first FIFA Executive Committee meeting in 2015.

Club World Cups

After successful editions of the Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, Japan and Morocco – which will also host the 2014 edition– FIFA has also opened the bidding processes for the 2015-2016 and 2017-2018 editions. Two host nations will host the events for two years.

Member associations that are interested in hosting the event are invited to submit a declaration of interest by 30 March 2014. The complete set of bidding documents has to be provided by 25 August 2014 and the Executive Committee will select the host in September 2014.

Beach Soccer World Cup

2017 will mark the ninth edition of the biennial Beach Soccer World Cup. Sixteen teams will participate in the ten to 12 day final competition, which requires just one stadium. “The location of the venue should reflect the sun, sea and sand of the Copacabana beach, the birthplace of beach soccer,” said FIFA.

Member associations should declare their interest in the Beach Soccer World Cup by 15 April 2014 and submit their definitive bids, including all signed bidding and hosting documents, by 1 October 2014. The host will be appointed by the Executive Committee at its meeting in December 2014.