THE Bahrain Football Association (BFA) has bid to host three major international competitions in the coming years.

The kingdom has applied to stage the 2016 Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup, as well as the 2017 Fifa U-17 World Cup and the 2017 Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup.

The bids were placed at the 63rd Fifa Congress, currently taking place in Mauritius, where the Bahrain delegation is being headed by BFA vice-president for technical affairs Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

This was confirmed last night by the BFA.

For the U-17 Women’s World Cup, Bahrain are competing for the rights to host against Jordan, South Africa and Ireland.

For the U-17 World Cup, other countries in the race to win rights are Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, France, South Korea, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, South Africa and Ukraine.

For the Beach Soccer World Cup, Bahrain is bidding alongside the likes of Argentina, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, India, Israel, Mexico, Seychelles, South Africa and Turkey.

BFA technical director and competitions committee head Hassan Ismail told the GDN last night that Bahrain has a good chance of being awarded the rights to host the three tournaments.

“We believe that our best chances are in hosting the Women’s World Cup and the Beach Soccer World Cup,” Ismail told the GDN. “We have put together a strong case for hosting all three competitions, and we hope that Fifa will select us as it will be a great achievement for Bahrain.”

Fifa is expected to announce the host countries of all three tournaments in December of this year.

Bahrain has had plenty of experience hosting major international football events over the past several years. It most recently successfully staged the 21st edition of the Gulf Cup, and the positive outcome has inspired the BFA to host even bigger events, knowing that the kingdom is fully capable of doing so.