There will be stiff competition for the 2018 World Cup as England’s rivals begin to formulate their own bids to the competition. Australia are already investigating the possibility of hosting the tournament whilst the Netherlands and Belgium have jointly announced a joint bid. Other contenders are expected to include United States of America, Mexico, China, Japan, Spain and Russia.

Australian 2018 Host Bid

Australia recently hosted the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the 2000 Olympic Games, but has never hosted the World Cup finals. Australian football Federation chief executive Ben Buckley said the decision to end the rotation of World Cup tournaments would work in Australia’s favour:

“We flagged our intention to bid for the World Cup at the earliest possible opportunity and we are delighted that the FIFA executive committee has decided to abandon the rotation policy. That will give us the opportunity to bid for and hopefully be successful in securing the right to host the 2018 World Cup so whilst we will be competing with European-based nations and nations from all over the world we think this will be a better system and a better opportunity for us. The race has only just started signing. Not sure anyone can be a shoo-in and I think Australia’s credentials stack up against anyone’s in the world.”

Japanese Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi said Japan would seriously consider another bid even though they co-hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea.

“As it will be possible for Japan to bid, we’d like to hold discussions with the parties concerned to seek our direction on the matter”

The only countries which cannot bid for the 2018 World Cup are those from South America, where the 2014 World Cup will be hosted and Africa as the 2010 World Cup will be hosted in South Africa.