Belgium has become the 10th bidder, the first from Europe, to express an interest in hosting an expanded Women's World Cup in 2023, FIFA revealed on Monday.

The submission was the only new entry following the FIFA Council's decision last month to enlarge the competition from 24 to 32 teams.

"The astounding success of this year's FIFA Women's World Cup in France made it very clear that this is the time to keep the momentum going and take concrete steps to foster the growth of women's football," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said as he pressed behind the scenes for an expanded field of 32 teams from the current 24.

"The expansion reaches far beyond the eight additional participating teams," he said. "It means that, from now on, dozens more member associations will organize their women's football program knowing they have a realistic chance of qualifying."

Nine countries had already declared an interest in hosting the next tournament before the decision was taken to change the format, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan and the Republic of Korea, with the latter potentially making a joint bid with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia had also come forward before Belgium became the 10th interested bidder.

They each have until September 2 to confirm their participation and must then submit their bids by December 13. The winning bid will be announced in May next year.

The 2019 final was won by the U.S. although the 24-team tournament featured a few lopsided scores in the group stage, notably the Americans' 13-0 thrashing of Thailand.

Instead of bidding for the 2023 event, the U.S. said they set their sights on hosting the 2027 World Cup.

U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro confirmed the American federation's intentions in an open letter to members and fans in July.

"We hope to host the 2027 Women's World Cup here in the U.S., which would be another tremendous boost to women's soccer in our country."

The 2019 Women's World Cup was only the second since it was expanded from 16 teams to 24 in Canada four years ago. The competition started out with 12 teams in 1991.

Infantino has already promised to double the prize fund for the next World Cup having initially raised overall contributions from 15 million to 50 million U.S. dollars in time for this year's competition.

He said the increase was part of a wider plan to invest a further 500 million U.S. dollars in the women's game to achieve a total of 1 billion U.S. dollars over the next four years.

(With input from agencies)