The Japan Football Association on Monday withdrew its candidacy to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, making the joint Australia-New Zealand bid a prohibitive favorite over Colombia to land women’s soccer’s most prestigious tournament.

The decision came just three days before a scheduled June 25 vote by the FIFA Council following a campaign that formally began in March 2019 and featured as many as nine interested countries, including a unified Korean bid that never came into fruition.

“We’ve discussed this multiple times as a board this month ahead of today’s decision,” JFA Chairman Kozo Tashima told an online news conference on Monday evening. “Everyone involved in the bid is very disappointed but they've all supported this decision.