“…With regard to football, conversely, women and gender have been studied extensively. Much of the literature focuses on histories of resilience and repression (Brus and Trangbaek, 2003;Cox and Pringle, 2012;Cox and Thompson, 2003;McGowan and Downes, 2018;Williams, 2003Williams, , 2006, the increasing professionalisation of the women's game and the consequences (Allison, 2016(Allison, , 2018Dunn and Welford, 2017;Williams, 2013;Woodhouse et al, 2019) and on sexism and misogyny within football structures (Caudwell, 2017;Knijnik, 2012;Scraton et al, 1999;Woodward, 2017). Because this article studies how gender discourses are used in the bid books, the primary focus of analysis is on the ways in which gender is mobilised as part of the bidding nations' rhetorical sales pitches.…”