The International Swimming Federation on Sunday named Fukuoka, Japan, to host the 2021 world aquatics championships, while Doha, the capital of Qatar, was chosen to host the event in 2023.
Federation President Julio Maglione made the announcement after a meeting of top FINA officials in Budapest, the Hungarian capital.
"Both winning cities, Fukuoka and Doha, are strong partners of FINA and will offer optimal conditions for the organization of these championships," Maglione said. "There is a very strong commitment from the local authorities to welcome this event in their respective dynamic metropolis."
The mayor of Fukuoka, which already hosted the world championships in 2001, put the success down to his city's campaign slogan of "compact in size, big in enthusiasm."
"We had a great experience in 2001, and after the staging of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, we will have an additional opportunity to develop this successful tradition," Soichiro Takashima said.
Thani Abdulrahman Al-Kuwari, secretary general of Qatar's Olympic Committee, said it faced "very tough" competition from rival candidate cities — Fukuoka and Nanjing, China.
"Thank God we won 2023 and this is what we wanted," Al-Kuwari said. "Hosting the FINA World Championships for the first time in the Middle East will be a great way to develop aquatics on a global scale."
Budapest was set to host the 2021 world championships, but was named last year as host of the 2017 event after Guadalajara, Mexico, withdrew due to financial concerns. The 2019 edition will be held in Gwangju, South Korea.
FINA also announced that the Mexican swimming federation had been temporarily suspended for allegedly "not fulfilling contractual obligations" related to its decision to withdraw from hosting the 2017 championships.
At the same time, FINA said it had hired the consulting firm of Francois Carrard, a former director general of the International Olympic Committee, to evaluate the swimming federation's corporate governance and, if needed, provide "recommendations for improving the corporate governance policies, processes and structures of FINA."
Carrard also heads the reform committee at FIFA, world soccer's scandal-ridden governing body.
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