All nine of Europe's delegates voted for the rival bid from Colombia, despite the trans-Tasman bid scoring higher on FIFA's technical evaluation report
Friday 26 June 2020 07:21, UK
The Football Association's decision to vote against Australia and New Zealand’s successful joint bid for the 2023 Women's World Cup has been described as "disrespectful" by Australia's football chief James Johnson.
FA chairman Greg Clarke opted for the rival bid from Colombia at the FIFA Council meeting as part of a block voting decision by European governing body UEFA.
The trans-Tasman bid, which scored 4.1 out of five in a FIFA evaluation report compared to Colombia's 2.9 score, won with 22 votes to 13 but Football Federation Australia boss Johnson was unimpressed by England's snub.
"I think that was quite disrespectful to be perfectly honest with you," Johnson told Australian broadcaster Fox Sports.
The FIFA report also described the joint bid as being the most favourable from a commercial perspective.
"It was a process that was ... run very well by FIFA ... we scored very highly on a report that was an objective report," added Johnson.
"We know now what the voting was like, and I must say we are disappointed with the way that the FA voted."
UEFA said its Council members had voted for Colombia, who were the only remaining rival bid following the withdrawal of Brazil and Japan earlier this month, because they saw more development potential for the women's game in South America.
"It was a choice between two countries Australia and New Zealand where women's football is already strongly established, and a continent where it still has to be firmly implanted and has a huge development potential," UEFA said in a statement.
It was a move which "surprised" FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who said: "Those technical reports have to mean something."
