UK planning to host 70 events in next decade with Women's World Cup, Rugby World Cup & World Athletics Championships among them

The United Kingdom is planning to host a number of major sporting events, including the Women's World Cup, Tour de France, Rugby World Cup and World Athletics Championships in the next 15 years.

According to the Dailymail, UK Sport, the Government agency responsible for major sporting events, confirmed that the Women’s World Cup is one of 70 events they would like to bring to the country over that period.

Other ‘aspirational hosting targets’ include the Rugby World Cup, the Ryder Cup, the World Athletics Championships and the Tour de France Grand Depart although the men’s World Cup, Olympics or Commonwealth Games are off the plate before 2040.

UK Sport claim the Women’s World Cup is ‘the biggest sporting event the UK has never hosted’ and a bid could be made for the 2031 tournament and intend to launch a feasibility study after FIFA decides who will host the 2027 edition in May.

If the 2027 tournament goes to the joint European bid from Belgium, Germany and Netherlands – who are up against Brazil and Mexico/USA – then the UK would target 2035 or 2039 instead.

Britain has not hosted a senior World Cup since the 1966 men’s tournament, which England won, although Saudi Arabia are also believed to be interested.

“The Women’s World Cup is the biggest sporting event that the UK has never hosted, so it has a special appeal to us,” admitted Simon Morton, UK Sport’s director of events.

“There is definitely an aspiration to host it in the 2030s. But we have to respect the fact that there are other countries interested in hosting them, so that’s why you see a little bit of an open-ended position.

“What is clear is that the UK’s mega-event hosting pipeline is tightening, and our international rivals are catching up, so we need to respond. Live sport is a fundamental part of this country’s social fabric. No other country buys more tickets per head to major sporting events than we do in the UK.

“In the years ahead, we want to host a programme of live sport that resonates with the British public and makes a difference to millions of people’s lives.”

Having hosted the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017 and the Rugby World Cup two years earlier, UK Sport want to give the two events another go.

“We'd love to have another crack at a World Championships. We can't definitely say it'll be London, but it would be in our mind given the success of it in 2017,” said UK Athletics chief executive Jack Buckner.

England is already hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup next year, but UK Sport wants to stage the men’s tournament again in 2035 or 2039 while the Ryder Cup could return to the British shores in 2031 or 2035 since Gleneagles in 2014.