Blatter Welcomes England 2018 World Cup Bid
After meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, FIFA president Sepp Blatter has
confirmed his intention to scrap the rotation system for hosting the World Cup
and said he would welcome a English bid to stage the 2018 tournament.
Blatter is likely to push through his desire to scrap the existing rotation
by continent system for the World Cup at a FIFA general meeting next week.
He said: ‘We shall make the World Cup available to everybody bar the last
confederation which has organised it. England is the motherland of football and
I’d welcome a bid for 2018, but we’ve already had talks with China, and
Australia are always in the running.’
Under the new proposal, no South American countries will be able to bid for
the 2018 World Cup as Brazil look set to host the 2014 tournament.
That decision came about after Argentina and Colombia pulled out, leaving
Brazil as the sole representative for South America.
Blatter, who was in Sheffield this week, told Prime Minister Gordon Brown
that a World Cup in England was overdue but by no means a certainty.
‘The last time we had the World Cup here was 1966 and by 2018 that will be
practically three generations. But England will not be the only candidates. As
well as China and Australia, there are the United States, Mexico and perhaps
Canada.
‘In Europe there is Russia and I will have talks with Holland and Belgium
next month about whether a combined candidature is valid.’
Brown added: ‘While a bid is a matter for the FA, it would be a huge boost to
football in our country and would also make for a great sporting decade.
‘We will have the Olympics in 2012, potentially the Commonwealth Games in
Glasgow in 2014, perhaps event the rugby union World Cup in 2015 and then to be
able to host the 2018 World Cup would be a marvellous completion of the best
sporting decade in our history.’
The bidding process for the 2018 World Cup has not opened yet and while
England has yet to register formal interest, all the signs point to a bid.
