They also wish to host the 2037 women's Rugby World Cup

We’d already heard that Japan wants the Rugby World Cup back – and now Italy want to host Rugby World Cup 2035 and 2037 too!

On Thursday morning the Italian Football Federation formally put up its candidacy to host Euro 2032 in Italy. And the Italian Rugby Federation. (FIR) has backed them. The upshot being, if there are stadium upgrades across the nation, it would help an Italian bid for the Rugby World Cup.

There are ten cities interested in hosting Euro 2032, with Milan, Turin, Verona, Genoa, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari and Cagliari. And as we know, Many of these venues are no stranger to Test match rugby – in fact the record rugby attendance in the country was for a Test between the Azzurri and New Zealand in Milan, in 2009, when 80,074 packed into the San Siro.

In the statement on the Italian union’s website they said: “The Italian Rugby Federation expresses its full support for the candidacy of the Italian Football Federation to host Euro2032 and wishes the best success to President (Gabriele) Gravina, the federal structure and all the stakeholders involved.

“The Italian rugby governing body intends to work in synergy with the FIGC and with all the stakeholders involved to ensure that the process of upgrading the stadiums identified in the dossier takes place taking into due consideration the needs of elite international rugby, an essential condition for be able to present, in the immediate future, an Italian candidacy for the 2035 (Men’s) and 2037 (Women’s) Rugby World Cup.”

England will host the women’s World Cup in 2025, before Australia stage the men’s World Cup in 2027 and the women’s in 2029. Then everything moves to the United States of America, where they will host the men’s World Cup in 2031 and the women’s in 2033.

If the World Cup was to come back to Europe after that, we know Italy want to host Rugby World Cup action. Should they get it?

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