Russia & Qatar To Host 2018 And 2022 World Cups

Russia and Qatar have won the FIFA Executive Committee’s votes to stage the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups respectively.??

Both countries will host the tournament for the first time in their history – with Qatar to stage the first ever World Cup in the Middle East.??

Russia fended off competition from England and joint bids from Spain/ Portugal and Holland/ Belgium to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

??Qatar won the vote ahead of Australia, USA, Japan and Korea Republic to seal the 2022 tournament after years of planning and lobbying paid off.??

Both decisions were made on Thursday following a secret ballot of football’s world governing body FIFA’s 22 executive members in Zurich.??

Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov said of the victory: ‘You have entrusted us with the FIFA World Cup for 2018 and I can promise, we all can promise, you will never regret it, let us make history together.’??

It was seen that Russia’s plan for improving facilities in host cities are in line with FIFA’s long-term plans for developing the sport.??

Russia proposed staging the tournament in 13 cities, grouped into four clusters that would stretch across its vast amount of land.??

Qatar’s bid is in contrast being a relatively small country with a population of only 1.5 million and the stadiums will be much closer together.??

The decision comes as a massive blow to England who threw everything they had at the bid – with Prince William, David Beckham and David Cameron addressing the FIFA committee with a last minute charm offensive.??

But England were eliminated in the first round of voting getting just 2 votes, with Russia earning a majority (12 votes) in round two.??

Beckham said that the bid team did all they could: ‘I’m obviously disappointed, our bid team have done everything possible. We couldn’t have got a better bid together.’??

‘We wish Qatar and Russia the very best. They’re two great countries and I’m sure they’ll make FIFA very proud,’ he added.

??It is reported that African confederation president Issa Hayatou voted for the England bid, along with bid chairman Geoff Thompson to gain just two votes.

??Bid chief executive Andy Anson claimed FIFA members had given their assurance to England: ‘David Dein, myself, David Cameron, David Beckham and Prince William were looking people in the eye and asking them for their vote and being told ‘yeah’.’

??Asked if the England bid team had been lied to, he replied: ‘I am not going to name names because that is not fair on individuals but clearly some people have. We thought we had more than six votes, perhaps seven or eight.’

??England’s bid was techinically sound achieving full marks on a FIFA report and after a slick presentation by the main delegates optimism surrounded the country and the bid team.??

But FIFA revealed that England were indeed eliminated in the first round of voting, with Russia winning the vote in the second round.