The Football Association and US Soccer Federation have joined forces to lobby Fifa for a revised organisational model governing the 2031 and 2035 Women's World Cups, according to the Guardian. The two federations are pressing for greater local control over how those tournaments are run, with concerns about the existing framework now sufficient to prompt a coordinated approach.
The push, as the Guardian reports, has been shaped in part by difficulties emerging around this summer's men's World Cup. Ticket pricing and financial disputes between Fifa and a number of US state and city authorities are said to have concentrated minds within both the FA and US Soccer, raising questions about how much influence host federations and local governments can expect to wield under the current model.
The significance of the partnership is considerable. The FA brings Uefa's institutional weight to the table — the Guardian notes the FA has also been working with Uefa to freeze ticket prices for Euro 2028 — while US Soccer would be central to any North American staging of a future Women's World Cup. Together, they represent a lobbying force that Fifa will find difficult to dismiss outright.
The women's game has grown substantially in commercial and cultural terms over the past decade, and the 2031 and 2035 tournaments are expected to reflect that trajectory. How revenues are distributed, how tickets are priced, and what authority local hosts retain over infrastructure and event operations are all questions with direct consequences for the health of the game at a grassroots and national level. The federations appear determined that those decisions should not rest with Fifa alone.
No formal response from Fifa has been reported at this stage. Whether the governing body is prepared to offer meaningful concessions on organisational control — or treat this as the opening position in a longer negotiation — remains to be seen.