2018 World Cup Bids Set To Be Limited To Europe

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has confirmed that a deal is being discussed whereby only European nations would bid to host the 2018 World Cup – a scenario that would rule out half of England’s rivals in the bidding process.

Russia and England have applied separately to stage the 2018 and/or the 2022 World Cup while Spain and Portugal and Netherlands and Belgium have made joint bids for one or both.

If the deal was to go ahead bids from Australia, Japan and United States for the 2018 tournament would be ruled out with their bids for the 2022 edition going forward to compete against proposals from South Korea, Indonesia and Qatar.

Blatter said he had talked over the deal proposal with Michel Platini, president of European soccer’s governing body UEFA.

Said Blatter: ‘There is a movement at the moment among the various candidates that in the end it would be a good solution … if the candidates for 2018 would only be those from Europe.

‘It’s not been finally decided but it’s the idea, also to make the work of FIFA easier and especially that of the executive committee. It would also possibly make the work of the different organisations applying for the World Cup easier.’

FIFA need bid documentation by the end of May and will study them in June and send out groups of specialists to visit candidate nations and assess their ability to stage the event successfully.

FIFA will announce which nations will host both tournaments in Zurich in December.