Football Australia (FA) are confident that their next FIFA World Cup bid will do better than its disastrous attempt to land the 2022 edition of the tournament.
The Australian is reporting that plans are being made for FA to launch bids for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups after they successfully landed the 2023 Women's World Cup in conjunction with New Zealand.
Brisbane also recently won the right to host the 2032 Olympic Games with Australia expected to focus their World Cup bid on the 2034 FIFA tournament.
After spending over $40 million in an attempt to host the 2022 World Cup but securing just one vote as Qatar won out, FA chief executive James Johnson believes they are in a much better position to succeed with the Women's World Cup seen as a crucial first step.
“We’ll host a great competition in 2023 – we’re going to wrap a legacy around it for the game, but we’ve got to squeeze more juice out of this and it could be a stepping stone with a successful delivery of that toward more FIFA competitions," Johnson said via The Australian.
"And there’s a trend. Look at Canada, which hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and 11 years later they’re going to host the men’s World Cup with the US (and Mexico).
"Look at Brazil – they hosted the World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016.
"It is a different FIFA now (to 2010). You have to make sure you put the best bid in and make sure you’re the best advocate. We probably have more clout now than we’ve had in a long time."
After the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the 2026 edition will see Canada, Mexico and the United States team up after they fended off a bid from Morocco.
The 2030 World Cup is then expected to be awared to Europe or South America with Spain and Portugal launching a joint-bid late in 2020.
The Socceroos have successfully qualified for the past four World Cups and kick off the final round of qualifying for the 2022 tournament against China on September 2.
Australia have had to forgo playing at home for that match due to COVID-19 restrictions with a neutral venue in the Middle East expected to be announced in the coming days.