Soccer’s world governing body was effusive this summer in its praise of Canadian officials and the job they did hosting the U-20 Men’s World Cup. On Tuesday, FIFA may hand out a wonderful parting gift — by awarding the 2011 Women’s World Cup to Canada.

Canada and Germany are the final two countries in the running for the prestigious event, and both will have the chance to make their cases on Monday morning to FIFA’s executive committee at its headquarters in Zurich.

Christine Sinclair, here leading Canada in the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China, could do the same on home soil in 2011.
(Ng Han Guan/Associated Press)

The committee then will decide the winner in meetings later in the day and on Tuesday morning.

Germany, winner of this year’s edition of the women’s event, has a lot going for it in terms of history, stadiums and infrastructure, having just hosted the gigantic men’s World Cup in 2006.

But Soccer Canada may have a compelling argument of its own, based on two previous tournaments.

The summer’s U-20 World Cup ran June 30 to July 22, bringing international sides to six Canadian cities — Burnaby, Victoria, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. It set a tournament record of 1,195,239 spectators over 52 matches.

According to figures provided by the organizing committee, the games generated an estimated $259.02 million in economic activity in the four host provinces.

And there was unprecedented television coverage as the CBC showed 220 hours of action (live or tape-delayed).

U-19 tournament broke records

That was the second time Canada has set attendance records at a FIFA event.

In 2002, the women’s U-19 world championships broke previous ticket sale marks and put more than 47,000 fans into the seats for the final at Edmonton that saw Canada lose to the United States.

FIFA will also hear a presentation from Brazil on Monday, as the only country to officially apply for the 2014 Men’s World Cup attempts to finalize what seems a sure thing.

Both World Cup announcements will be made the following day.

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Tags: Canada, learns, Tuesday, whether, Women's, World

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: Fun and Games, Soccer