N.B. Soccer confident on Moncton FIFA cup bid

The head of Soccer New Brunswick isconfident of Moncton's chances to be one of the hosts of the 2015 Women's World Cup of Soccer.

"I think our reputation for staging events whether it was the World Junior Track and Field Championship or the CFL games or the many concerts we've done, certainly our reputation as being a wonderful host I think is pretty well known internationally," Jeff Salvis said.

Seven cities were involved in Canada's bid for the 2015 World Cup: Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, Moncton and Halifax. Six cities will be chosen.

FIFA, soccer's world governing body, officially named Canada as the host nation of the 2015 Women's World Cup on Thursday. When Zimbabwe dropped its bid last week, Canada was the only country bidding for the Cup.

Canada will also stage the Women's Under-20 World Cup in 2014.

Moncton has a history of hosting large-scale events, even though it's the smallest city competing for the soccer event.

Moncton has a bit of a lead over Halifax it already has a stadium and all the facilities to host international soccer, but the city's person in charge of the bid, Ben Champoux said that doesn't rule Halifax out of the running.

"I'm not so sure that it'll be a choice between Moncton and Halifax, I think that Moncton and Halifax both could host games in 2015," said Champoux.

The Canadian government has already committed up to $15 million in funding to the Canadian Soccer Association to run the 2015 tournament and the 2014 Under-20 World Cup.

Soccer Canada will tour the seven cities and make its decision by the end of the year.

Halifax Mayor Peter Kellysaid hispriority is to get a new stadium for the city but added he's open to the idea ofworking with Moncton on a joint bid.