Japan will be a "good candidate" to host the 2019 women's football World Cup although they will stage the rugby World Cup in the same year, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said on Friday.
Japan, who won the women's World Cup in Germany last year and lost to the United States in the London Olympic women's football final last month, were playing host to the women's under-20 World Cup due to end in Tokyo on Saturday.
Blatter said he had talks on Thursday with Kuniya Daini, the new president of the Japan Football Association, about the country's wish to host the women's World Cup after the 2015 edition is staged in Canada.
"Japan would be a good candidate or contender. They are a little bit afraid because they'll have in the same year the rugby World Cup but the sports are totally different," he said.
Blatter noted that the football event can be held in early summer and the rugby tournament in autumn.
"The Women's World Cup has been in Europe and America and I think coming back to Asia would be a correct passage," he said. "With 24 teams, you have to play somewhere where women's football is established. Otherwise it would not be a big success."
In Asia, China hosted the inaugural women's World Cup in 1991 and the fifth edition in 2007.
The U-20 tournament was originally scheduled to be played in Uzbekistan but FIFA, world football's governing body, moved the venue to Japan last December citing "logistical and technical" problems in the central Asian country.
Source: AFP
