(Reuters) - South and North Korea’s football associations have registered interest in jointly hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup, FIFA said on Tuesday, in another potential sporting detente after their unified team competed at the Winter Olympics.

The sport’s world governing body received a record nine host submissions, which also came from Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.

Each nation has until April 16 to make its final submission, with a decision expected in March next year, FIFA said.

“This is the largest-ever list of MAs (member associations) to have submitted formal expressions of interest to FIFA with a view to hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” said a statement.

In an effort to ease political tensions on the divided Korean peninsula, a unified team from north and south competed at last year’s Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. They also fielded joint teams under a common flag at the Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang. </s> ZURICH—FIFA says nine soccer federations are interested in hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup including South Korea, which could jointly bid with North Korea.

Brazil and South Africa are in the contest, suggesting underused stadiums built to host the 2014 and 2010 World Cups could be picked. </s> ZURICH — FIFA says nine soccer federations are interested in hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup including South Korea, which could jointly bid with North Korea.

Brazil and South Africa are in the contest, suggesting underused stadiums built to host the 2014 and 2010 World Cups could be picked.

Other contenders are Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand.

South Korean officials said this month that FIFA approached them to explore a joint bid with North Korea.

Potential candidates have until April 16 to register to bid, then until Oct. 4 to submit bid books.

The 37-member FIFA Council will pick the host in March next year.

The next Women’s World Cup is played June 7-July 7 in France. </s> ZURICH (AP) - FIFA says nine soccer federations are interested in hosting the 2023 Women's World Cup including South Korea, which could jointly bid with North Korea.

Brazil and South Africa are in the contest, suggesting underused stadiums built to host the 2014 and 2010 World Cups could be picked.

Other contenders are Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand.

South Korean officials said this month that FIFA approached them to explore a joint bid with North Korea.

Potential candidates have until April 16 to register to bid, then until Oct. 4 to submit bid books.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino holds a soccer ball as he speaks during a press conference after the FIFA Council Meeting, Friday, March 15, 2019, in Miami. The council approved working with Qatar to explore expanding the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams by adding at least one more country in the Persian Gulf to host matches. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

The 37-member FIFA Council will pick the host in March next year.

The next Women's World Cup is played June 7-July 7 in France. </s> A joint proposal from North and South Korea is among a record nine bids for the 2023 Women's World Cup, football's world governing body FIFA has announced.

The other bids come from Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa, which means four of football's six confederations - Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America - are represented in the contest.

There are two stadiums of note in North Korea. The Kim Il-sung Stadium in Pyongyang is the biggest, with a capacity of 50,000 seats.

The Yanggakdo Stadium, also in North Korea's capital, holds 30,000.

Having formally expressed their interest in hosting the ninth Women's World Cup, the 10 federations involved now have a month to return their bidding registrations and until October to submit their bid books, signed hosting agreement and all other related documents.

Unlike the men's tournament, which is voted on by all 211 member associations at a FIFA Congress, the winner of this race will be decided by a vote of FIFA's 37-strong ruling council next March.

In a statement, FIFA said it 'will implement a fair and transparent process, which will include a clear evaluation model as well as a concrete commitment to sustainability and human rights'.

FIFA introduced a human rights element to its bidding contests in 2017 following widespread criticism of the decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

According to its 41-page 'Overview of the Bidding Process', FIFA will require the 'implementation of human rights and labour standards' by the bidding federation, the government and 'other entities' involved in organising the event, including those who build or renovate stadiums, training bases, hotels and airports.

While the joint Korean bid will undoubtedly attract the most interest, Australia were the first to declare their interest and are probably the front-runners in terms of their media campaign.

The announcement of nine potential hosts is a far cry from the last two bidding races when there were only two bidding federations for the 2015 and 2019 editions of the tournament. And the fact they are all new would-be hosts is another indication of the growth of the women's game.

This year's tournament is being staged in France between June 7 and July 7, with England and Scotland among the 24 nations taking part. </s> FIFA has confirmed it has received a record number of formal expressions of interest from countries looking to host the Women's World Cup in 2023, with nine possible bidders from four different continents in the hat so far.

FIFA's deadline for expression of interest to host the 2023 tournament was earlier this month, with the nine prospective bidders now given until April 16 to submit their official bidding registration to the world governing body, the next stage of the process.

Among the nine interested countries are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia, with one hoping to stage the first Women's World Cup in South America.

Expression of interests have also come from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The initial paperwork was also submitted by South Korea, expressing interest in jointly hosting the World Cup with North Korea, as had previously been rumoured, with the possibility of such even publicly welcomed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Never before has a list of interested member associations been so big.

After submitting bidding registration by the middle of next month, FIFA will then send hosting documents to each potential bidder. The deadline for the submission of the bidding book, signed hosting agreement and all other official documentation is then October 6.

Whether all of the currently interested countries make it as far as submitting a formal bid remains to be seen. An announcement regarding the winning bid is expected in March 2020.

Women's football continues to grow at a rapid rate. The Women's Super League in England is now fully professional as of this season, while Spanish pair Atletico Madrid and Barcelona recently played in front of a 60,000 crowd at Wanda Metropolitano.

The 2019 Women's World Cup in France promises to be the biggest and best yet. </s> ZURICH – South Africa are one of nine nations who have put their name forward to host the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup, with the winner set to be announced in March next year. The other nations in the running are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand, while South Korean officials have claimed that they have been approached by Fifa about the possibility of entering a joint bid along with North Korea.

The fact that SA and Brazil, hosts of the respective 2010 and 2014 men's World Cup events, are involved in the bid for the women's showpiece, opens the possibility that one of these nations could get the nod and make use of the stadiums which costs hundreds of millions of Rands to build a few years back.

Each of the bidding nations have until April 16 this year to lodge their official paperwork with Fifa.

South Africa's national senior women's football team, known as Banyana Banyana, will join fellow African nations in Nigeria and Cameroon, among the 24 countries in action at this year's Fifa Women's World Cup in France, starting on June 7.

Like us on Facebook </s> The IOC has confirmed North Korea and South Korea have outlined their desire to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

North Korea and South Korea want to co-host the 2032 Olympic Games and have requested permission for unified teams to enter qualification for Tokyo 2020.

The IOC confirmed on Friday that the two countries have declared their desire to host the Games together, although the candidature process for 2032 is yet to begin.

IOC president Thomas Bach said of the initiative: “The discussions at the working meeting today are one further step showing how sport can once more make a contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula and the world.

“We have a good foundation to build on and make further progress ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Sport will continue to build bridges and demonstrate the unifying power of the Olympic Games.

“Therefore, we warmly welcome the historic initiative of the two Koreas to put forward a joint Korean candidature for the Olympic Games 2032.”

Delegations from North Korea and South Korea marched together at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang last year and joined forces for a women’s ice hockey team.

The two Koreas hope to enter unified teams into the Tokyo 2020 qualification process for women’s basketball, women’s hockey, the judo mixed team event and in three rowing events apiece for men and women.

“There are still ongoing talks between the [National Olympic Committees] of [South Korea] and [North Korea] and their governments on possible additional unified Korean teams in other sports,” read an IOC statement.

“The IOC informed them that it will consider further requests if these are made in due time ahead of the Olympic qualification competitions.” </s> South Africa are interested in hosting the Women's World Cup in 2023 after submitting a bid, Fifa has confirmed.

Banyana Banyana secured qualification for the Women's World Cup for the first time in 25 years at the 2018 African Women's Cup of Nations in Ghana.

And the southern African nation are looking to become the first African nation to stage the global women's showpiece.

On Tuesday, Fifa announced that a record nine countries, including South Africa have tabled a bid to stage the quadrennial championship.

Other bidding countries are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand and North Korea in a joint bid with South Korea.

According to Fifa calendar, March 16, 2019 was set as the deadline for withdrawing a file, before sending the documents of the file to interested federations two days later.

The deadline date for returning the documents is April 16, 2019, and two days later, Fifa will send the reports to be completed to the associations.

October 4, 2019 is set as the deadline for returning completed reports under Fifa specifications, while in February 2020, Fifa will report back before taking a decision on host country in March 2020.

Having successfully organised Africa's first ever World Cup in 2010, South Africa stand a bright chance of securing the hosting rights for Women's World Cup. </s> The four-nation Women's East Asian Cup, which also features China and Japan, sees South Korea face their bitter rivals from the North at Seoul's World Cup stadium on Sunday.

The tournament takes place with the two Koreas engaged in rare talks aimed at restarting a jointly run industrial project in Kaesong, which closed in April as relations between Seoul and Pyongyang plummeted.

The closure of the park, a money-spinner for the impoverished North, came after North Korea threatened strikes with nuclear and other missiles against the South and the United States after the United Nations imposed toughened sanctions on the North for its third nuclear test in February.

While most other aspects of cross-border cooperation have been frozen, sport seems to be one area in which the North has found some common ground with its neighbour.

Jeon Young-sun, professor at the Institute of the Humanities for Unification from Konkuk University, said some significance could be attached to the visit of the women's team but the relationship had to improve before progress could be made.

"It (the visit) can be considered meaningful but in the middle of a lull in South-North Korea relations, politics are likely to impact sports, not the other way," Jeon told Reuters.

Sporting relations between the two Koreas have veered from cosy to ice cool in recent years, the high point being their joint march under a 'unification flag' at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

The two Koreas also fielded a joint team for the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships but examples of such rapprochement are rare.

At last year's London Olympics, the North Korean women's soccer team walked off the pitch in disgust after the South Korea flag was incorrectly displayed on a giant screen at Glasgow's Hampden Park stadium.

The game was delayed for over an hour after images of the North Korea players were displayed beside the South Korea flag and London Olympics organisers had to issue an apology.

Soccer has been a familiar battleground for political tensions to be played out.

The North did not even attempt to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, which was being co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, while matches between the two teams during 2010 World Cup qualifiers were a constant headache for the game's governing body FIFA.

Games scheduled for Pyongyang had to be moved to Shanghai after the North refused to allow the South Korean national anthem to be played in Kim Il-sung Stadium, or for the South's flag to be flown.

Kwak Moon-wan, the head of a North Korean defectors' football club in Seoul, said there was little hope that sport could be used as a vehicle to close the ideological gap.

"It would be very significant if North Korea were to let South Koreans play on its soil and let them fly their flag and play their national anthem," said Kwak, who fled the North and settled in Seoul in 2003.

"But until that happens, sports can't be used for diplomacy between here and there."

While some have expressed hope that the two Olympic teams could march together when the Winter Games come to South Korea's Pyeongchang in 2018, a Korean Olympic Committee official told Reuters that possibility remained a distant one.

"This is the first time North Korean athletes are visiting South Korea since inter-Korean relations went sour earlier this year, but unfortunately there is nothing going on as to forming a joint team or marching together at an international competition," he said.

"In order for that to happen, we first need to have a bond of sympathy or a feeling of brotherhood but given the current political standoff, it is unlikely."

The women's East Asian Cup wraps up on July 27. A men's tournament is being held at the same time but North Korea did not qualify for the finals.
North Korea and South Korea express interest in jointly hosting the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.