2018 Stadiums
Potential Stadia for Englands 2018 World Cup Bid
FIFA have certain rules and regulations for stadium selection in World Cup bids. There will need to be at least ten stadiums put forward all with 40,000 capacity or above, plus at least two stadia must be 60,000 plus capacity, for the opening match, the semi-finals and the final of the World Cup. A further current regulation is that only two of the stadiums can be in the same city.We expect some of the following stadia to be used in 2018 if England are successful with their bid:
These are just a list of potential venues at present, FIFA’s two stadia per city rule, means many London based grounds may not be included even though the stadiums are of a very high quality. Also currently some stadiums lack the necessary access for the media and press, whilst there are also many stadiums which aren’t yet at a suitable capacity but by 2018 they could easily be large enough for World Cup games.
Opening game, Final, Semi Final, Quarter Final, Knock-out phase, Group phase:
Semi Final, Quarter Final, Knockout phase, Group Phase:
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Old Trafford, Manchester
Capacity 76,312
Team: Manchester United |
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New Anfield, Liverpool
Capacity 61,000
Team: Liverpool |
Knockout phase, Group phase:
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Villa Park, Birmingham
Capacity 43,300
Team: Aston Villa |
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St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton
Capacity 30,000
Team: Southampton |
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Madjeski Stadium, Reading
Capacity 24,200
Team: Reading |
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Pride Park, Derby
Capacity 30,000
Team: Derby County |
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Ricoh Arena, Coventry
Capacity 32,000
Team: Coventry City |
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Kingston Communications Stadium, Hull
Capacity 25,400
Team: Hull City |
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The stadiums are totally rubbish. We should hold the world cup in Italy
England has some of the best Stadia in the World
England is the best place to hold the world cup because we are hold the olympics in 2012 so everyting will be ready and the grounds do not need to be built because they are built and are some of the best in the world.
what never inculde twickenham ??? as it has a 82,000 capacity it is also considered the 3rd biggest ground in england
The final should be held at the KC Stadium, not Wembley. If we did that we would definitely get the 2018 World Cup.
Why is Forest’s ground not on there. It can seat just over 30,000, not 25,000 like a couple of those
The RFU would never let Twickenham host football. Those stadia are alright but FIFA would want to spread the tournament out through all of England. Expect new stadia in the South West, and (very) North West, and maybe in the West.
Sunderland, Milton Keynes and Hull are all crap cities so I’d rather new stadia were build in nice cities like Bristol or Plymouth. 2018 is plenty of time for this to happen.
It looks like there shall be fantastic stadiums available for the 2018 world cup bid. However there are some stadium plans that this website does not mention.
Liverpool are looking to increase the preposed capacity of their new 61,000 seated stadium to possibly as high as 75,000 (more likely 65,000). Newcastle United intend to increase St James Park to 60,000. Everton plan on moving to a new 55,000 seat stadium, as do Birmingham City. Tottenham and Chelsea have also been thinking about moving to new or expanding existing grounds to 55,000+. Aston Villa also plan on expanding Villa park to 51,000 seats.
As like the above comment I to would like there to be a spread around the country. Hopefully cities like Bristol, Plymouth, Brighton and Norwich will be considered for new stadiums in the bid.
“Sunderland, Milton Keynes and Hull are all crap cities so I’d rather new stadia were build in nice cities like Bristol or Plymouth. 2018 is plenty of time for this to happen.”
Have you ever been to Plymouth…its a dump mate!! Im a Sunderland fan living in Bristol so can see both sides of the argument. Yes Bristol is a lovely city but with two league teams who can command little more than 10,000 fans each week there is no point in building a 50,000 capacity stadium here or in Plymouth. The SOL is widely recognised as fantasitic satdium with the potential to expand way beyound 50,000 to meet the demands of SAFC and a potential 2018 bid. I hasten to add that you have probably never been to half the places you’d dismiss as crap and have failed to understand that nobody cares about football in the South West as there too busy egg-chasing (playing rugby). Both Saint James’ Park and SOL are fantastic arena’s that would add massively to any decision FIFA might make about bringing football home.
I’m all for a competiton in England but this stadia is pathetic. Wheres Elland Road? Wheres St. Andrews? Wheres Twickenham? Wheres The Riverside Stadium?
I’m shocked that such stadia as the KC stadium in Hull and the Majedski Stadium are on this list. FIFA are not going to be attracted by tiny 20,000 seater stadiums, they want more of your 35,000. As Tom rightly said on April 11th, this is about bringing football home. And right now we re below par. I dont think this stadium list shows we understand the huge scale of this competiton.
Yeh some of the info up there needs updating, like updated pics of Wembley, Old Trafford, Stadium of Light and capacity info such as New Anfield will prob be nearer 80,000 and St James Park being expanded to over 60,000. Milton Keynes should defently be up there as it is the fastest growing and most modern city in the UK with a gorgeous stadium nearly completed. I also believe Home Park in Plymouth should be expanded or even a new stadium to be built for 2018 as there needs to be a venue in the south west.
I reckon it should be
Final – Wembley 90,000
Semi Finals – Old Trafford 76,000 (prob 95,000 by 2018)
– New Anfield 75,000 – 80,000
Other Knockouts – Emirates Stadium 60,000
– St James Park 60,000
– Stadium of Light 49,000
– City of Manchester Stadium 48,500
– Villa Park 43,300 (plans to expand to 52,000)
Group Games – St Marys 32,000 (upgrade to 40,000+)
– MK Stadium 30,000 (upgrade to 40,000+)
– Plymouth 21,000 (upgrade to 40,000 or build a new stadium)
– Walkers Stadium 32,000 (upgrade to 40,000+)
– Ricoh Arena 32,000 (upgrade to 40,000+)
Milton Sodding Keynes!!!!
Also, someone somewhere mentioned Twickenham, like the RFU will allow that to happen.
Liverpool will never go to 75,000, they will not get the planning permission.
Should include Hampden Park and Millenium Stadium for truly ‘British’ World Cup
Do u know what, I am fed up with reading abusive comments about Milton Keynes. Has anybody who makes ignorant comments like the last one actually been there.
As to the Stadium MK. It is a 32,000 all seater with fantastic access, and FIFA 4* facilities. It has been built so that it can be expanded to 42,000 with minimal building work.
Also this is an ENGLAND bid for the World Cup. So why make it British. I don’t hear the Welsh Assembly or the Scottish Parliment wanting to include England in their joint bid for the Euro Championships.
I think we could use the New Pompey Stadium now. 36,000 and it looks stunning! ………oh well c ya later St Marys then.
Yeh MK is the fastest growing city in the UK and will be huge by 2018 and with a new stadium it would be stupid to overlook it
I really dont know how we can be considered ‘below par’. The list of high class modern stadia in England is far superior to the vast majority of countries that will potentially bid. We have more foreign money being pumped into our game every year and the stadiums which are being built and are in the planning office are amazing. By 2018 we will have at least 6 stadiums 50,000 plus, Wembley, New Anfield, Emirates, Old Trafford, SOL (after developement can be 55,000) and Saint James’. These are modern, world class arena’s before we even consider the great plans that lower league clubs have for 35000 ish. On stadia there uis no way England can be overlooked, we just have to hope that politics and reputations dont get in the way.
Pompey?HaHa!They would never hold it there!Even at a new ground(Thats if they get the permission,which they wont).Milton Keynes may be fast-growing but its rough no rougher than Wembley though I suppose.
For the 2006 Germany world cup, cities had to bid against each other in order to be a host city. Although cities like Manchster, Newcastle, London and Liverpool are guaranteed stadiums in our 2018 bid, I hope that the other smaller cities have a similar bidding competition to select the best hosts.
Its been mentioned that people want a British World Cup I believe fifa have said they do not want any future co host World Cups. However just after the recent euro 2012 winning bid by Poland & Ukraine, Scotland & Wales put forward there interests in being hosts for the euro 2016. This euro bid could make up for them not being able to co host with England in 2018.
I feel that the main European rival to host the 2018 World Cup would be Spain. Below is a list of both the English and Spanish stadiums that could be used in their bids.
England:
London: Wembley 90,000
Emirates 60,432
Manchester: Old Trafford 76,312 (Possible expansion up to 96,000)
Liverpool: Stanley Park 61,000 (Possible expansion to 75,000)
Birmingham: Villa Park 51,000 (Shall be expanded to this size by 2012)
Newcastle: St James Park 60,000+ (Plans been announced to expand from 52,387)
Sunderland: Stadium of Light 48,707 (Can be expanded up to 72,000)
Portsmouth: New Stadium 36,000 (Hopefully add seats to 40,000, built by 2009)
Sheffield: Hillsborough 40,000 (A revamp and slight expansion needed)
Leeds: Elland Road 40,296 (A revamp needed)
Bristol: New Stadium 40,000 (New ground for Bristol City)
Leicester: Walkers Stadium 40,000 (Needed to expanded from current 32,500)
Other large stadiums that might be used instead of those above, only 1 city can have 2 Stadiums:
Birmingham: City of Birmingham Stadium 55,000
Manchester: City of Manchester Stadium 47,726
Liverpool: New Everton Stadium 55,000
London: Expanded Stamford Bridge 55,000
Spain:
Madrid: Bernabeu 80,354
Estadio La Peineta 73,700 (Was planned stadium for 2012 Olympics)
Barcelona: Camp Nou 98,787
Valencia: New Valencia Stadium 75,000 (Built by 2009)
Seville: Estadio Olimpico de la Cartuja 72,000
Bilbao: Estadio San Mames 56,000 (Built by 2012/2013)
Zaragoza: Nueva Romareda 42,500 (Built by late 2007)
San Sebastian: Gipuzkoarena 42,400 (Built by late 2007)
La Coruna: Estadio de Riazor 40,000 (Need to be expanded from 34,600)
Malaga: Estadio La Rosaleda 40,000 (Needs expansion from 37,200)
Murcia: Nueva Condomina 40,000 (Needs expansion from 31,200)
Elche: Estadio Manuel Martinez Valero 40,000 (Needs expansion from 38,800)
Other Stadiums that could used instead of those above, only 1 city can have 2 stadiums:
Madrid: Estadio Vicente Calderon 57,500
Barcelona: Estadi Nou Sarria 41,000 (Planned stadium)
Seville: Estadio de Lopera 55,500
Seville: Estadio R. Sánchez Pizjuán 45,000
We may have the stadia but can our Police cope with what will most probably be mass riots
To make this short there are 114 American Football Stadiums in 108 Cities with capacities of 40,000 + in the US. 10 of them are 90,000 + capacity with a total of 24 with 80,000 + capacity. So, if you want to argue over what small stadium cities should get the bid for England, just hand the bid to the US where we still hold the capacity record for a World Cup and will bring in the fans.
Best would be a UK bid
Wembley: 90,000 (5*)
Old Trafford: 76,000 (5*) (potentially 95,000 by 2018)
Millenium Stadium: 74,500 (5*)
New Liverpool Stadium: 65,000+ (5*)
Celtic Park: 61,000 (working on 5* status)
Emirates: 60,000 (5*)
City of Birmingham Stadium: 55,000 (planned)
Hampden Park: 52,000 (5*)
St James Park: 52,000 (potential expansion to 60,000)
Stadium of Light: 49,000 (expandable to 72,000)
Villa Park: 43,000 (planned expansion to 51,000)
That would be 11 stadia that if all expanded would be at least 50,000 capacity each, geographically fairly well distributed and all with the potential to have a 5 star UEFA rating. Also these are all roofed stadia which helps reduce the impact of the weather.
No to be critical Dabbs but I see 2 problems in your bid. First, England does not want a joint bid with Wales and/or Scotland. Second, you have 2 cities with 2 stadiums (London, Birmingham) which currently is not allowed. Replace Villa Park, Hampden Park, and Millenium with Ewood, Elland Road, and The Madejski Stadium. I wouldn’t mind England getting the World Cup but because of the United States large stadiums it deserves a bid too.
The best English Bid would be:
2 Stadia in London
- Wembley
- Emirates
8 Stadia in Core Cities Group:
- Manchester (North West)
- Liverpool (North West)
- Newcastle (North East)
- Sheffield (Yorkshire)
- Leeds (Yorkshire)
- Birmingham (West Midlands)
- Nottingham (East Midlands)
- Bristol (South West)
2 more stadia (Optional):
- Southampton (South East)
- Norwich (East Anglia – Can be replaced with a better candidate)
We could host a better world cup than America! The stadiums over there are hours appart in England we will have better known FOOTBALL stadia and all will be within 5 hours of eachover!
I would say already Wembley, Emirates, Old Trafford, St James, Stanley Park, Eastlands, Stadium of Light and Villa Park are ready to host world cup football with the new Portsmouth and MK grounds as well, Hillsbourgh could host international football as could the walkers, ricoh and elland road stadiums.
Personally I would love the Millenium stadium in Cardiff to be used as it is one of the best stadiums in the world.
Why not use the new Olympic Stadium instead of the Emirates?
It has 20,000 more seats, much better trasnport facilities, and also, if London is the biggest city in Europe what’s the point in having both stadiums in the north of the city? Spread it around!
Also, the bloke responsible for the successful German bid said that the cities with the best tourist ‘package’ should get the nod ahead of the big stadiums in shitty towns (ie Sunderland)
hey – if you’re going to include hull, MK and reading on the list then where is the Walkers Stadium in Leicester? if it’s pushed up from 32,500 to 40,000 by 2018 then it would be ideal to host a match due to the one stadium per-city rule meaning that city of manchester stadium, st andrews (birmingham), evertons new stadium, and many in london are unable to be used.
michel kelly – an all british world cup would be nice. but have you forgotten that we aren’t british for the purposes of football? fifa wouldn’t allow us to use scotish and welsh stadiums. besides, we can’t go on to fifa about preserving our independence from each other in football and then unite whenever it suits us!
Rich – as for the olympic stadium, it is actually going to be reduced in capacity after the olympics, so it won’t be that big in future.
London: Wembley, emirates
Birmingham: Villa Park
Manchester: Old Trafford
Liverpool: New Anfield
Newcastle: St James Park
Sunderland: Stadium of Light
There are your obvious stadiums i think. most of those being in the north though I would then expect more of a distribution to the south for the smaller stadiums used in the early rounds:
Leeds: Elland Road (yes i know it’s up north – i said more of a distribution, not all stadium in the south)
Sheffield: Hillsborough
Southampton: St Mary’s (something south of London!)
Leicester: Walkers Stadium
Nottingham: City Ground
Ipswich: Portman Road (spread the games out to the east)
There you have 12 cities….oh hang on 13 stadiums. well even so, maybe Leicester won’t be used (Leicester fan so DAMN!!) but still, a fair distribution of games throughout the country, with only a few stadia needing to be updated to the 40,000 minimum, and no resorting to rugby stadiums!
rich you idiot have you ever been to sunderland it has far more to offer than you think and all our fans are friendly and loyal it is the 11th largest city in the uk and im very proud of where i come from so do one.
The KC stadium may not be the biggest but its one of the most modern with a slightly more atractive design than your bog standard bowls,and it will be made bigger.
As for some of you suggesting Ellend road and forests ground ,they are old dumps.
Not all the games will attract huge crowds so the largest stadia are not always the best,Arsenals may be huge but its ugly and is crap for atmosphere.
the kc staadium is ace and it willbe raised up 2 50,000 because of city getting bought.& i thoght mkdons capacity was 5000, have they moved???
England is the perfect candidate for 2018.
In my opinion the KC Stadium does not stand a chance, neither would milton keynes. This proposed world cup should be about promoting English touristic attractions. Its the cities and what they can offer that is more important then the stadiums.
· ‘The status of a club is not important. It is to do with the tourist and cultural package of a venue.’ – Horst Schmidt, vice-chairman of the 2006 World Cup organising committee.
Here is what I feel the FA would settle on if they wanted to promote the best of England to the world.
LONDON:
Wembley Stadium, 90,000. Group stages, Quarter Final, Final.
Emirates Stadium, 60,432. Group Stages, Round of 16, Semi Final.
SOUTHERN ENGLAND:
Bristol, New Stadium for Bristol City 40,000. Group stages, Round of 16.
Portsmouth, New Stadium 40,000. To be built by 2009 hopefully add 4,000 extra seats to meet minimum capacity. Group stages, Round of 16.
MIDLANDS:
Birmingham, Villa Park 51,000. To be expanded by 2012. Group stages, Round of 16, 3rd/4th place match.
Nottingham, New Nottingham Forest Stadium 50,000. To be built by 2014. Group stages, Round of 16.
EAST ANGLIA:
Norwich, New Stadium for Norwich City 40,000. Group Stages, Round of 16.
YORKSHIRE:
Sheffield, Re-developed Hillsborough 45,000. Group Stages, Round of 16.
Leeds, New Stadium for Leeds United 50,000. Plans have been announced in past for new stadium but Leeds would have to get back to Premiership. Group Stages, Quarter Final.
NORTH WEST:
Manchester, Old Trafford 96,000. There have been plans to expand to this capacity in the future but it would be hard. Group stages, Round of 16, Semi Final.
Liverpool, Stanley Park 78,000. To be built by 2009 can be expanded from the initial 68,000 capacity. Group Stages, Quarter Final.
NORTH EAST:
Newcastle, St James Park 60,000+ to be redeveloped in the near future. Group stages, Quarter Final.
I hope only a few current English stadia are used in the bid. Stadiums in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle are important, but FIFA will want to spread the tournament over the whole country. So I expect new stadia in smaller cities like Portsmouth, Bristol, Leeds etc because they are nice places for tourists to visit, even if the stadium capacity has to be reduced after the tournament.
The Madejski Stadium, Reading is being rebuilt to be over 40,000 by summer 2009.
Portsmouth are building a new floating stadium too. So that or St Marys, Southampton.
The two most populated footballing places in the south outside London will be needed- for games like Saudi vs Tunisa etc in c40,000 Stadia.
(Dont see that game getting 100,000 in a USA WC Mr Yank!)
Then use obvious- Wembley, Old Trafford, Stanley Park or Kirkby, Emirates
and St James, Stad of Light, City of Manchester and we only have to build one new one! Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield or Bristol to bid for it!
Hello,
just thought that I would say… Nottingham Forest are expecting a new 50,000 seater, modern, good looking and its near enough close close to get to from north and south!
surely this will be a great stadium for the bid!
(if you havent guessed im a forest fan myself)
okay, okay, the KC may not be the biggest stadium in the country but was built the option in mind of increasing the capacity to around 32,000. Some of the grounds being mentioned instead of the KC would take ALOT of work to refurbish and get up to scratch.It just doesnt seem worth the effort to do up the City Ground etc when increasing the capacity of this stadium was likely in time anyway. Also, just because Hull City are a lower championship side and the ground is just 24,000 at present, it makes an improvement to some of the areas being suggested. The World Cup is also an advert for the world and though Elland road is much bigger, the KC is much more aesthetically pleasing and as near new. It is probably still the most start of the art of the new grounds (although obviously improvements to the premiership grounds over the last few years still give them the edge). Despite the floods over the last months which will set us back 2 years or so (still enough time for the world cup) Hull is making leaps and bounds and much money is being pumped into the joint. Despite people’s reaction to the place and what they’ve heard it is making vast strides and the opportunity to host one or even two lower order world cup cups games would again do wonders for a resurgant city. By the way the city is coming at the minute by 2018 (11 years away remember) it may be a top 10 city and the team may have tasted premiership football for the first time, who knows. Its a beatiful ground deserving at least a Mexico vs Iran type fixture, we aint asking for the final or to see brazil get off at the ground just a couple of games to make us feel part of the whole experience as hull is isolated enough! Hull will come good, just you see…
Reading will only be expanding their stadium if they remain in the Premier League. They will have to get over 2nd. season syndrome first. As for the rest, sorry guys but much of it is pure flying piggery.
It should be……..
Wembley (London)
Emirates Stadium (London)
Villa Park (Birmingham,West Midlands)
New Nottingham Forest Ground (Nottingham,East Midlands)
Old Trafford (Manchester,North West)
(New) Anfield (Liverpool,North West)
St James Park (Newcastle,North East)
KC Stadium (Hull,East?)
Hillsbrough (Sheffield,Yorkshire)
Elland Road (Leeds,Yorkshire)
New Bristol stadium? (Bristol, South West)
St Marys (Southampton, South)
A mix of new grounds and tradional grounds, like Villa Park and Hillsbrough and fairly well spread out around the country
Wat about the maze being built in belfast it will have a crowd of 50,000 and it will have state of the art technology such as highlights of the match throughout the match on every seat!!!! and stamford bridge is getting a proposed new stadium with a 68,500 stadium in earls court
It’s got to be an all english world cup for FIFA to allow it.
Sorry Celts
wat about japan/korea 2002????????? norn iron should be considered seriously
Check out the Observer website. and look at “Ebgland 2018″ on search engine and you will find it suggests unusual place as Host Cities such as…
Bristol
Plymouth
Brighton
Wolverhampton
Middlesbrough
Go now
I think we should have 16 stadiums. Every group would be split up regionally such as e.g
“Group A- London
Group B- East Midlands
Group C- Manchester
Group D- North East
Group E- Birmingham
Group F- South West
Group G- Liverpool
Group H- Southern England/East Angila
The seeds in the group would have the larger stadium.
Then 8 stadiums could be dropped and be left with eight for the knockout round like Wembley, Old Trafford, New Anfield, Emirates and so on
the maze is the way forward in football stadiums
Robert Grant has no idea. we will have up to 8 stadiums
(wembley, Old Trafford, Emirates, New Anfeild, Chelsea,
City Of Manchester, St James’ Park and Stadium of Light)
over 45000 capacity. HOW THE HELL IS ITALY A BETTER
PLACE TO HOLD THE WORLD CUP???
Spain might be a potential rival though…
I thought you should let you all know that you can’t just pick the best stadiums in England. A stadia taking part in the world cup had to be over 40,000 capacity. Also 1 city can only have 1 stadia apart from 1 city (that will be London). This also means that the world cup will be all over the country, not just in 1 place.
I think that there should be a 48 team world cup. Here how the places would be alotted:
14 UEFA
10 AFC
10 CAF
5 North America
5 South America
1 New Zealand and Oceania
1 HOST
1 Holders
1 Wildcard.
Stadia:
London Wembley
London Olympic Stadium
Manchester Old Trafford
Liverpool New Stadium
Everton (Outside City)
Newcastle St. James
Sunderland
Middlesbourgh
Nottingham New Stadium
Reading
Birmingham Villa Park
Blackburn
Milton Keynes
Coventry
Portsmouth
Southamton
Plymouth
Derby
Sheffield New Stadium
Leeds
Bristol New Stadium
The Final tornament:
1st Round
2nd Round
3rd Round
1/4 finals at St. James, Stadium of Light, Liverpool and Wembley
1/2 finals at Old Trafford and Olympic Stadium
3rd Place Play off at Villa Park
Final at Wembley
no… emirates instead of olympic stadium because…
o/s will only hold 26,000 by 2018
it has a running track around it
it was never really designed for football use
it seems a stupid rule to have 2 gronds per city, it means that you would have the madjeski over stamford bridge, upton park, riverside, white hart lane etc. same with the K/C stadium. And stadium MK. And Pride Park. And st marys. you get the picture.
Congratulations! Your idea is great! I was surfing on the net when it came to my mind to think about the potential stadia for England 2018, when I found this site. I’m writing from Barranquilla, Colombia. I’m a fan of World Cup, and I always wonder which would the possible venues be for this tournament,although I’ve read the Olympic Stadium (2012) will be partially demolished up to a capacity of 25,000. Well, time will tell us.
Bye
FIFA will only let grounds over 40,000 host world cup games since 2002. UEFA 30,000 for European championships. It may well be that only one stadium per city, but this may change to 2 per city pending on clubs may want to share matches if in same city. By 2018 it may well be 50,000 minimum for world cup games.
The likely stadiums will be
Wembley 90,000
Old Trafford 91,000 (extra tier and corners on final stand and railway station built under the stadium) £180 million.
New Anfield 80,000 (re-submission of plans)
St James park 77,000 (extra tiers to other two stands)
New Goodison 71,000 ( corners filled in on new stadium)
Stadium of light 66,000
Emirates 60,432
New St Andrew/city of birmingham stadium 60,000
Villa Park 51,000
The Riverside 44,800
Pride Park 44,600
Molyneux 42,000
Hillsborough 40,000
Elland Road 40,000
certainley can’t see Hull or MK hosting wc games, heck getting to the Prem before 2018 is unlikely for both these clubs.
Right whoever mentioned Blackburn and Leeds must be mad! If we do host the World Cup we have to make it the best ever!! And we can start by building state of the art modern stadiums: Wembley, Old Trafford & The Emirates with New Anfield, St.James Park & more following on. We also have top facilities at training grounds which nations could use near the relevant stadiums. And if the Olympics go well then that and The Commonwealth Games in Manchester will prove that we can host major events! So surely we are a better bet than Spain (poor policing) and the USA & Australia (a country that calls it Soccer does not deserve to host it). And hopefully we wont have to qualify having won the previous tournament – or maybe not!!
48 teams would never work. too many teams like Oman, Guinea and New Zealand. I tested it and came out with this
Group 1: England, Ecuador, Egypt, Serbia
Group 2: Holland, T&T, Mali, South Korea
Group 3: Czech Rep, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Japan
Group 4: France, Canada, Morocco, Ukraine
Group 5: Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Russia
Group 6: Argentina, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Australia
Group 7: Brazil, Panama, Cameroon, Sweden
Group 8: Portugal, Uruguay, Guinea, Oman
Group 9: Germany, USA, Tunisia, Uzbeksitan
Group 10: Spain, Paraguay, Senegal, Greece
Group 11: Romania, Mexico, Nigeria, Iran
Group 12: Italy, Chile, Ghana, China
old trafford will never get to be 96,000 as they arnt allowed to be bigger than wembley and liverpools will never go above 65,00 theres no chance of them reaching 75,000 so the 4 semi finals will be wembley 90,000 old trafford maybe 80,000 new anfield 65-70,000 and st james park 60,000/emirates 60,00 depends wich looks better when st james done
Liverpool’s new ground will get over 75,000. The owners and designers have said it will be 78,000 – 79,000. Also that doesn’t include filling in the corners of the ground, so if they really wanted it could be extended bigger again to get like 90,000 I think but I could be wrong.
To aaron- I have never heard of any rule saying an english football ground can’t have a larger capacity then that of Wembley. Although it would be odd if Old Trafford did have more seats then Wembley, I don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t do it if they have the demand and can afford the expansion.
Also there can’t be 4 semi finals in a World Cup. However I feel the quarter finals could go to St James Park (Newcastle) 60,000+, Wembley (London) 90,000, New Elland Road (Leeds) 50,000 and New Anfield (Liverpool) 78,000. The semi finals could go to Old Trafford (Manchester) 76,000+ and Emirates Stadium (London) 60,000. The 3rd 4th place played at Villa Park (Birmingham) 51,000, and the final played at Wembley (London) 90,000. This way most of the large stadiums are used and there is a good geographic spread around the major English cities for the final important matches.
Wembley 90,000
Old Trafford 85,000 Extended
Twickenham 82,000 In talks with RFU
Liverpool (New) 78,000
Stadium of Light 64,000 Extended
St James Park 60,000 Extended
Everton (New) 60,000 Outside of Liverpool
Birmingham (New) 55,000
Darlington Arena 52,000 Extended.
Nott Forest (New) 50,000
Walkers Stadium 45,000 Extended
Pride Park 44,000 Extended
St James’ Park can only have one more stand extended as the buildings behind the Leazes End are Listed Buildings.
Darlington Arena has the potential to be extended if access to and from the stadium meets FIFA’s requirements.
Birmingham City are building a new stadium if granted permission which will have a higher capacity than Villa Park so would be a better contender.
I have had a change of tune. Why go to places like Leeds, when we could promote the whole British Isles by spreading the games out. Here are my venues.
Definate(England): Wembley, Emirates, Old Trafford, New Liverpool Ground, St James Park, Villa Park
Celts: Hampden Park, Celtic Park, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Croke Park (82,000?!), New Belfast Ground.
but for group matches go to places in England which i have not included.
Nottingham
Sheffield
Bristol
East Anglia?
Southampton
OR split the draw into two like 2002 (A-D Celts, E-H England) so we don’t have to invest in new stadia ( except for East Angila, Bristol, Birmingham, Belfast) and do the Britsih Isles proud
I think the stadiums should be
Wembley
Twickenham (its a lot bigger than the Emirates, and, as Wembley and the Emirates are in the north London,it would be fairer if there was one stadium in the southern part of London) but if RFU dont allow football there then the Emirates
Old Trafford
New Liverpool Stadium
St James Park
Stadium Of Light
New Forest Ground if it gets past planning stages, if not then Pride Park
Walkers Stadium ( should be increased to 45000 by 2018)
Villa Park
Elland Road
Hillsborough
Everyone has a thing about Sunderland it’s a dump for god sakes….
LONDON:
Wembley Stadium, 90,000. Group stages, Quarter Final, Final.
Emirates Stadium, 60,000. Group Stages, Round of 16, Semi Final.
SOUTHERN ENGLAND:
Bristol, New Stadium for City and Rovers 45,000. Group stages, Round of 16.
Southampton, St Mary’s 52,000. Stadium has been built so it can be upgraded to this. Group Stages, Round of 16.
MIDLANDS:
Birmingham, Villa Park 51,000. To be expanded by 2012. Group stages, Round of 16.
Nottingham, New Nottingham Forest Stadium 50,000. To be built by 2014. Group stages, Round of 16.
EAST ANGLIA:
Norwich, Re-developed Carrow Road 40,000. Group Stages, Round of 16.
YORKSHIRE:
Sheffield, Re-developed Hillsborough 45,000. Group Stages, Round of 16.
Leeds, Re-developed Elland Road 50,000. They would have to rebuild the West Stand (with loans from government) Group Stages, Quarter Final
NORTH WEST:
Manchester, Old Trafford 76,000. Group stages, Round of 16, Semi Final.
Liverpool, Stanley Park 68,000. Group Stages, ¾ place play off.
NORTH EAST:
Newcastle, St James Park 58,000+ to be redeveloped in the near future. Group stages, Quarter Final.
Group A: London
Group B: East Midlands
Group C: North East
Group D: Yorkshire
Group E: South West
Group F: North West
Group G: South East
Group H: West Midlands
‘The status of a club is not important. It is to do with the tourist and cultural package of a venue.’ – Horst Schmidt, vice-chairman of the 2006 World Cup organising committee.
Here is what I feel the FA should settle on if they wanted to promote the best of England to the world.
London- Wembley Stadium
London- Emirates Stadium
Manchester- Old Trafford
Liverpool- New Anfield
Birmingham- Villa Park
Newcastle- St James’s Park
Leeds- Elland Road
Nottingham- City Ground
Bristol- New Venue
Norwich- Carrow Road
Blackpool- New Venue
Brighton- New Venue
The reasons behind this is there are nine regions in England- London, North West, West Midlands, North East, Yorkshire, East Midlands, South West, South East. I think having Blackpool and Brighton as venues will be very popular with fans.
Main Places not included:
Sunderland- crap
Everton/Man.City- One stadium in city except London
Sheffield Wed- One venue in Yorkshire
Southampton- dull- Brighton better
I think one thing that could scupper England is the fact that most of the stadiums are here already. By 2018 they will be the best part of 20 years old and the suggested new ones seem unlikely to be sustainable. 45,000 in Bristol? City haven’t played in the top flight for nearly 30 years.
I read today about that it’s theoretically CONCACAF’s turn in 2018 but there’s only USA, Canada and Mexico that could realistically stage it.
I know Europe has it a lot but it’s the heart of the world game. If it went to CONCACAF you have the prospect of USA having held it twice in 24 years when they don’t care about the sport, Mexico staging it for the third time, all post ‘66 and Canada? They’ve not made the finals since a dismal display in 1986.
Also another America’s WC would be in the same time zone (roughly) as 2014.
The rest of the World would undoubtedly disagree but I think there should be a form of rotation: Europe, ROW, ROW, Europe, ROW, ROW etc…
Those advocating new stadia in towns like Norwich Bristol Plymouth etc should remember that Reading’s Madejski is being upgraded to 32,000 in Summer 2007 and 40,000 in Summer 2008. It is also a UEFA 5 star venue and has hosted numerous European rugby finals and FIFA internationals.
I think there should be an internal bidding process in the regions.
LONDON- 1 from Emirates, Stamford, Olympic Stadium, White Hart Lane
SOUTH- 2 from Madejski, New Pompey, St Marys, Falmer (Brighton)
MIDLANDS- 2 from Villa Park, Pride Park, Walkers, Ricoh Arena, MK Dons
NORTHWEST- 2 from New Anfield, Goodison Park, City of Manchester Stadium, Reebok Stadium
NORTHEAST – 2 from St James’, Stadium of Light, Riverside
That makes 9, plus Wembley, Old Trafford and a new stadium in Birmingham makes 12.
Why do people keep saying about having stadiums in Scotland, NI, Wales etc etc. It’s England bidding… people saying ‘unite the british isles or whatever’.. shut up…. If we did like have a stadium in Wales and Scotland.. then it wud be a 3 country bid. The football team is England… not Britain… so therefore the Bid is foe England. We are quite capable of holding the ebst world cup ever without other countries. And also, All scotland want to do now is become their own country and not be in UK… so they shouldn’t be included in a ‘British Ilses or whatever u ppl say’ world cup. England will be the ones payin for it! so the stadiums shud be in ENGLANDDDD!!!
Glad to have gotten that of my chest
I personlay think
Definate:
wembley=final
old trafford=semi
emirates=semi
new anfield=3/4
probaly:
st james
villa park
elland road
new pompey/saint
nottingham/foxes/rams
Bristol/plymouth
sunderland
around london ie : revamp , reading or watfor
You have to take into consideration that tourist destinations and places of interest will feature, and not only quality of stadia, which means I would prefer to see the following happening whereby two stadia in one region are twinned for pool matches and one of them chosen for knockout stage matches:
London – 2 stadia (Emirates, Bridge, Olympic?) with Wembley for start/end only, to keep the pitch in pristine condition
Manchester-Liverpool (Old Trafford, Stanley Park) – 2 stadia
Portsmouth-Southampton (obvious) – 2 stadia
Midlands (Villa, Derby, Brum) – 2 stadia
North East (St James’ Park, Light, Riverside?) – 2 stadia
Yorks region (Leeds, Sheffield) 2 stadia
Which means Spain, the US and even China have an edge in the photogenic stakes, but England would win hands down if it were about the game itself… Although the sound of ringing tills may yet persuade FIFA to come to these shores.
If only there were call for stadia in the Lake District or Cornwall, England might stand a better chance! Still, can’t fault the enthusiasm. Not met a single person against it yet.
With the thames gateway project underway to revamp areas to the east of london and essex theres a chance that west ham could be re housed in a new stadium and if its in essex than that counts as outside the city so theres another ground for the fa to consider.Furthermore milton keynes stadium is actualy realy good and state of the art. The access into the ground are good and theres room to expand. The problems with america and oz is that the cities are too spaced out and like what happened to the irish in 94 was that they had to fly all over the place to watch there team. In the uk are grounds are built for footie not athletics etc. Spain would be a threat i feel as they have good football pedigree. Australia are an emerging nation as the last world cup proved and they have a good recent history at hosting sporting tournaments. What needs to happen is a big injection of cash should we win the rights to host the tournament and build facilities that can cope and look good.
I think it is long over due that England hosts the World Cup in 2018. But unlikewhat we are doing for 2012 a more concerted effort should be made to spread the benefits around the nation as a whole…
8 groups I think could be based in
North East Newcastle and Sunderland
North West the two new staduim of Liverpool and Everton
Manchester Old Trafford and Man City
Yorkshire Elland Road and a Sheffield staduim
Midlands Villa Park and Pride Park
South Southampton and Portsmouth the new one already proposed
West I would include Millennuim and the only new one for Bristol
Scotland (why not, it will be part of the UK, still I hope) Glasgow Edinburgh
Note how I have avoided London … it would make alot of sense in terms of security, avoid too many opposing fans and spread economic benefits to the rest of country for once…
The final of course would be played at Wembley….
just to clarify and correct my above post….
I am not proposing a joint bid with the Scottish and Welsh bid but trying to spread the economic benefit and cultural experience for the fans…I was in montpelier for France 98 and it reaaly made a difference o hav a small city base that for the duration lived and breathed football …
Also i overlooked thefifa rule about stadia in one city… so North West becomes Old trafford and New Anfield … and listening to my learned freinds on this site…
A central region… the MK dons and Norwich …based on my montpellier small city experience…
I’m all for it, but we need real imagination if England is actually to win this bid. The retrofitted, dull styles of StMary’s, Pride Park, Riverside are functional but they are simply not footballing stadiums.
Designs for new stadiums in alternative areas other than London need serious consideration
Let the welsh on board and use cardiff. Its an excelent stadium. Old trafford and cardiffi for the semis and wembley for the final.
The stadia should be
wembley
millenium cardiff
old trafford
new anfield
new stadia in birmingham
st james park
emirates
stadium of light
notts forrests new ground
and new pompey ground
further…
for the group stage each of the 4 teams in each group get assigned to a stadium not involved in the matches from the lower leagues where they can train, the town can adopt that nation and general cultural activities take place…the nation could play some warm up games there …again spreading the benefit as wide as possible…
as an example…
having agreed the north west will have new Liverpool and Old Trafford as assigned stadia…the four teams will be allocated Tranmere, Chester, Blackpool, Oldham
the yorkshire group could include …Doncaster, Huddersfield, Grimsby York,
i could go on …. its keeping me entertained….
What is important about the stadiums picked is the capacity and transportation links. Also it needs to be considered if the area is suitable like are the surrounding roads small that you’d end up with a traffic jam lasting into the night.
For convenience, all group games will be kept in certain areas like already mentioned avoiding a lot of hassle.
But I do think Wembley and Old Trafford will be certainly included.
I hope Villa Park gets picked! Come on England! 2018, Here we come!
The only benefit I think of including Hampden and the Millennium is that it would demonstrate the importance of Britain as a whole in establishing the game. Hampden is a historic venue in its own right, the Millennium is vast with a retractable roof and the UK is essentially – whether we like it or not – the same country ruled from the House of Commons with the same monarch.
We do have a Scottish PM let’s not forget – where else could you get that situation and not be up in arms?
Remember that Wales staged the FA Cup for six years and Cardiff has won the thing. Queen’s Park, who play at Hapden, has taken part in the competition too so I think it would benefit the overall bid.
However, it could also deflect focus with some political infighting which could be a reason for FIFA committee members not to vote for us. It may be too high a risk to persue – Wales and Scotland can’t be included as co-hosts either – FIFA don’t want two, let alone three!
why not elland road
coz by then we will be in the premiership and it will be bigger or if we are lucky we could get that 60 thousad seater which we wanted all that time ago
and stadiums like villa park and stadium of light would have rotted away
i just ask ,how about twickenham stadium in london,can be used for world cup 2018.
i just ask ,how about olymbik stadium in london stadium in london,can be used for world cup 2018.
People are forgetting that only 1 city can have more than 1 stadium on the roster. This is necessary to ensure the diversity of the competition. They would possibly make an exception, but neither Liverpool nor Manchester would have the anything approaching the required hotel facilities to cope with potentially 4 sets of fans
The bid will be split among governmental regions. 2 in the NW, 2 in the NE, 2 in Yorks, 2 in the Mids, 2 in London
Then expect one stadium in the East and one on the South coast.
At this point, the bid could feasibly add ‘token’ stadiums, such as a second Manchester or Liverpool stadium but more likely expect something in the SW (Bristol), if they can deliver it
The quality of the stadiums now may suggest that an alternative roster would be better, but remember, there will be huge grants available for redevelopment and the probable locations NOW will not necessarily have the same stadiums in 2018
Local politics will also play a big part
Expect Sheffield to get a new stadium, Leeds will redevelop on the West side and if Bristol can crunch the numbers, that city will be represented too
I expect the stadia will be as follows
Emirates, Wembley
Old Trafford, New Anfield
Elland Rd, Sheffield*
Birmingham*, the City Ground
Stadium of Light, St James’
St Mary’s or Portsmouth*
Bristol*
*denotes host city but not stadium
There could then possibly be games hosted at the City of Manchester Stadium, Everton, Ipswich* or Norwich*
IF Scottish or Welsh stadia are considered, they would most likely be granted a knockout game, as would the CoMS and/or Everton, but these options would not be included within the bid, they would seek special dispensation after the fact
Wembley, London
Old Trafford, Manchester
New Anfield, Liverpool
St James’, Newcastle
Twickenham/Emirates, London
Villa Park, Birmingham
Elland Road, Leeds
Hillsborough/Bramall Lane, Sheffield
St Mary’s, Southampton
New Stadium, Nottingham
New Stadium, Bristol
New Stadium, Norwich
12 stadiums, all big cities represented, all regions represented – including East Anglia. Some people are forgetting no one wants to go to Sunderland, Hull, Leicester etc
I can’t see why the Ricoh isn’t too popular. It’s got a great atmosphere, is a popular new ground, has terrific facilities (hotel, casino, restaurants etc) and has hosted U-21 games before. Plus, Coventry is quickly becoming a popular city for tourism.
It certainly should be in above MK Dons and Forest.
The capacity of grounds for all but the biggest games will not matter if the greedy FA come up with the same ludicrous pricing and ticketing arrangements as appertained in Euro 96. A quarter-final at Villa Park attracted 26000!
Also whoever said Milton Keynes has good transport links has only been by car. It is 25 minute walk from Bletchley station and it took me an hour to reach MK Central after a 3pm game. Worst ground in England to reach on (local) public transport
We should give groups to regions across Britain. It wil be sensible to do as follows
London (Wembley, Emirates)
East Midlands (Nottingham, Sheffield)
South West (Cardiff, Bristol)
North East (Newcastle, Leeds)
West Midlands (Birmingham, Coventry)
North West (Manchester, Liverpool)
Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh)
Southern (Plymouth, Southampton)
AND they are all places that people would want to go to watch WC Matches
These stadiums should be used if England got the World Cup 2018!!
Wembley Stadium – London
Emirates Stadium – London
Old Trafford – Manchester
City Of Manchester Stadium – Manchester
New Anfield – Liverpool
St. James Park – Newcastle
Stadium Of Light – Sunderland
Riverside Stadium – Middlesbrough
St. Marys Stadium – Southampton
Villa Park – Birmingham
Elland Road – Leeds
Madejski Stadium – Reading
New Stadium – Bristol
Hillsborough – Sheffield
OK some factors have not been taken into account here.
Only one city can have 2 venues. All must be minimum of 40,000 capacity and it is also likely to be 8 grounds used, so therefore it would probably be like this.
Wembley
Emirates
New Anfield
Old Trafford
St James Park
Villa Park
New proposed Notts Forest ground (40,000 capacity)
Then one from:
Bramall Lane (officially planned to be 40,000 by time of world cup with a new Kop to be started in 2008 and and additional tier to the main stand to follow) However location will be an issue as the ground is in the city centre.
Hillsbrough / Elland Road – both already large enough but will need extensive remodelling due to restricted views and dated facilities – particularly at Hillsbrough. This will cost the FA a lot of money as Leeds needs 3 stands and Hillsbrough needs 2.
Elland Road is most likely as the location is considerably better and Leeds already run shuttle bus schemes for games so they are quite well drilled.
Another possibilty is Pride Park at Derby, they plan to do it up to 40,000 and its located out of town which is deemed as ideal.
It wont be reading or sunderland. Reading is too close to london, and although Sunderland is definitely worthy it is to close to newcastle/ St Marys is far too small. City of Manchester would be great but the ‘one city with 2 stadia rule’ means it will miss out. Riverside does not even come close due to capacity, location, local infrastructure.
Bristols proposed 30,000 ground will be to small and frankly it will probably be characterless and basic.
also it is and ENGLAND bid not UK so the scottish and welsh grounds will not be eligible despite how good some of them are.
futher to my first point, i correct myself up to 16 stadia could be used rather than 8. But there is still the minimum of 40,000 problem plus infrastructure.
Wembley will host all England games so the likes of: Emirates, New Anfield,Old Trafford,St James Park,Villa Park and the largest potential 8th ground could be split one per group so that the game between to the 2 seeded or larger teams per group will be held there with the exception of Englands games.
This would open the door to the more ‘dark horse’ stadiums but 1 city with 2 stadium rule means some fantastic grounds would miss out such as Evertons new ground (if EVER built) and city of manchester. I genuinely think that the city of birmingham ground will never be built i can see a potential expansion there but not a new 55,000 seater.
Realistically though the FA will build the likes of plymouth to 40,000. Only clubs with potential to achieve this sort of crowd will get it.
i think that they should use twickenham because its got a good atmosphere and is just as good as any football stadium
plus that when elland road has got the upgrades and a new lick of paint that should be on the list
To Be Honest Id Love to see a stadium in kent
priestfields all the way for the final
Due to the rules only one city can have more than one stadium, so, that rules out City of Manchester Stadium (Eastlands). Two stadiums could probably be used in London, Wembly and either Twickenham or Emirates (or maybe the new expanded White Hart Lane). Only one of either the new Anfield stadium (Stanley Park) and the new stadium for Everton can be used, meaning at least FOUR of England’s biggest Stadia cannot be used…
bristol is a shit place milton keynes is great but i should be held at the mighty stamford bridge xoxoxox
MadStad for the final! Only kidding!
Mind you, it will be AT LEAST 38,000 by then, (I hear rumours of 48,000 by 2015??) so is a strong candidate for some of the slightly earlier rounds (QFs, perhaps?)
December 24, 2007 @ 11:40 am
chris said:
also it is and ENGLAND bid not UK so the scottish and welsh grounds will not be eligible despite how good some of them are.
Not necessarily. The bid for a predominently “England” World Cup can just as easily include a match or two at the Millennium, or Hamden/Ibrox/Celtic, if the bid organisers decide so. (This frequently happens in RWCs (Take last year, for example – How exactly are Cardiff and Edinburgh in France??) In fact, this could prove politically expedient with the head-honchos at FIFA.
To John: Well Cardiff and Edinburgh are not in France, but for France to get the 2007 rugby world cup they had to get the welsh and scottish RFU votes otherwise England would have been host. They did get their votes but had to strike a deal with them, which involved games being played in their capitals.
To Mrs Lampard: Bristol is not a ’shit place’ as you put it, infact its probably the nicest large city in England, and I expect it will be part of a 2018 bid, unlike Milton Keynes and Stamford Bridge. London’s 2nd stadium is most likely going to be the Emirates with 60,432, as Stamford Bridge can be only expanded to 55,000 at most. The only Stadiums that could replace the Emirates in London are West Hams new stadium which would be newer and maybe a fraction bigger, or if Tottenham get WHL expanded larger then 60,432 or have a new stadium built.
Its amazing how talk of a few games (64) in the summer of 2012 strikes great conversations that last months.
I would love for the RFU to let Twickenham host three football games, 1. England group game, 2. Last 16 games, 3. A semi-final to allow Wembley off hosting a Semi
Another amazing comment.
WORLD CUP 2012 IN LONDON!!
The 12 stadias
1. Wembley
2. Twickenham
3. Emirates
4. White Hart Lane
5. Stamford Bridge
6. Upton Park
7. Selhurst Park
8. Craven Cottage
9. 2012 Olympic Stadia
10. Loftus Road
11. Vicarage Road
12. The Valley
PS, am only joking
All this could be overruled if Premier League’s infamous ‘Game 39′ goes ahead
Would the world cup work with 13 stadiums. please reply
In the analysing stadiums bit like plymouth and liverpool, PLEASE would someone do Molineux. It’s just like Villa Park and Hillsborough, steeped in Football history
Not sure if you people realise but FIFA allow only 2 stadium for 1 city and the others have to be spread around. Games cannot be held in either Wales or Scotland as this would mean giving all 3 countries direct qualification and UEFA and FIFA will not allow that. All stadiums must hold at least 45,000.
I think the WC should go to Australia in 2018. We have held the Olympics, Rugby World Cup, Commonwealth games and to be honest no in one Europe really likes the English and it would be alot safer for all fans to hold the event on the other side of the world.
Seriously….Why Sunderland? It really isn’t anything special.
Wembley,
Villa Park,
Everton,
Man City,
St James,
St Andrews,
Elland Road(?),
Old Trafford,
New Anfield,
Emirates,
New Pompey,
Bournemouth (holds just under 40,000)
The stadia should be (not in any particular order)
1: Old Trafford ( with south stand redo it would be 96,000 by then)
2: Wembley
3: Twickenham
4: Croke Park
5: Murrayfield
6: new Everton
7: Milleniun Stadium
8: new Liverpool
9: Villa Park
10: St. James’ Park
11: Stadium of Light
12: Maybe Elland Road if Leeds can afford to redo it
Portugal will participate with Spain in FIFA 2018 world cup, and we have more possibilities to win the bid. We have better and biggest stadiums than England and we are knew by all the world by our fabulous organizations and tourism…
Thanks… But england project is very good…
Madejski Stadium will hold 38,000 by 2012.
Stadiums must be atleast 40,000 capacity. I do think England should be the next European country to get the World Cup. Plus only one city can have two stadiums. This is how I see World Cup bids panning out.
2010 – South Africa
2014 – Brazil
2018 – England
2022 – USA
2026 – China
2030 – Uruguay
2034 – Spain
2038 – Australia
2042 – Canada
2046 – Italy
2050 – AFRICA
2054 – Mexico
2058 – France
2062 – Argentina
2066 – Japan
2070 – Germany
2074 – USA
Please can someone tell me why everyone is assuming that St James Park can be expanded to 60,000. It cannot. It has an underground station at one end preventing the extension of the Gallowgate end. Behind the east stand is the listed structure of Leazes Terrace. They would need to move Stadia to get a bigger ground. And all this is information was told to me by a NUFC ST holder. Get this notion of 60,000 out of your heads.
What about Hillsborough Stadium?? Just short of a 40.000 capacity and possible investment by a new takeover for the club, this stadium has a lot of potential to match its rich history
st james can be extended to 60000 it would just involve either strengthening the station or relocating it, the club already have plans for this. either way it would still be way above the 40000 requirement and one of the most impresive stadiums in the country along with old trafford.
the main stadia should be
wembley
emirates
old trafford
new liverpool
st james park
villa park
stadium of light
elland road
possibly hillsbrough
then made up by smaller stadiums with room for expansion
i think it is also important to include some of the older historic stadiums that actualy have atmosphere rather than the new plastic ones
Why can’t the bid concentrate on cities instead of just simply large stadia? Sunderland have got a huge stadium but the place is a ****hole! Tourist-friendly cities like Bristol, Portsmouth, Nottingham would be great choices if some temporary stands were added to current stadia to boost the capacity to the 40,000+ mark.
I made a comment on 04/10/2007 quoting “Everyone has a thing about Sunderland it’s a dump for god sakes….”
I went to Sunderland for West ham’s game up there in March and yes the place was not the same as London or Manchester. But unlike Coventry and Leicester, i found the sunderland people to be quite freindly and these qualites would be pleasent for American and Korean tourist (hopefully) visiting our country in 2018. I retract my comments about Sunderland mad previously and should definatly be a part of the 2018 bid.
Professional football was pioneered in the north of England which is why there is still a bias to greater stadiums and success than the south.
I’d like to see some representation for the south west though and think only one stadium per city is necessary (except London due to size).
I’ve tried to think of travel proximity in the following suggestions, and can’t think of anything more fare :-
Wembley
Emirates
UPGRADED
Old Trafford
new Anfield
St James’s
Elland Road
Molineux
City Ground
St Andrews
Bristol (possibly new)
No doubt there would be grants to upgrade stadia (U) and that would easily allow for five or more of 60,000 capacity.
it’s not a two stadia per city limit, it’s ONE stadium per city except the main city and it is a 40,000 minimum
so:-
Elland Road 40,242 Leeds United
1) Wembley 90000
2) Old Trafford 76,313 Manchester United
3) Emirates 60,000 Arsenal
4) St James’ Park 52,387 Newcastle United
5) Stadium of Light 48,300 Sunderland
6) Anfield 45,522 Liverpool (New Stadium TBA)
7) Villa Park 43,300 Aston Villa
9) Hillsborough Stadium 39,859 Sheffield Wednesday
10) St Mary’s 32,500 (52,000 after upgrade) Southampton
11) Riverside 35,100 (42,000 after upgrade) Middlesbrough
12) Pride Park 33,597 (40,000 after upgrade?) Derby
13) Ricoh 32,500 (40,000 after upgrade) Coventry
14) Walkers Stadium 32,500 Leicester City (39,000 after upgrade)
no Chelsea, no City of Manchester under current FIFA rules
well to be honest the madjeski is nowhere near good enough for the world cup. if we were to host it now
1 Wembley Stadium 90,000 England national football team National stadium N/A Largest stadium in the country, most expensive stadium in the world. Holds current world record for the most covered seats.
2 Old Trafford 76,212 Manchester United Premier League 1 Largest football stadium in the Premier League. Nicknamed the Theatre of Dreams by Sir Bobby Charlton. Hope of expanding the stadium to about 96,000,which if done will make it the biggest stadium in England.
3 Emirates Stadium 60,355[1] Arsenal Premier League 2 Also known as Ashburton Grove. Largest club stadium in London.
4 St James’ Park 52,387[2] Newcastle United Premier League 3 Plans to upgrade to 60,000 seats [3]
5 Stadium of Light 49,000[4] Sunderland Premier League 4 Was the largest new club stadium built in England since 1923 when it opened in 1997. Has planning permission for extension of South Stand to take capacity to about 55,555. The stadium’s third tier will eventually be extended round the East Stand, pending improvements in local infrastructure, taking the capacity to 67,500.
6 City of Manchester Stadium 47,726[5] Manchester City Premier League 5 Also known as Eastlands or abbreviated as COMS; the stadium was originally built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Afterwards it was given a £35 million conversion by Manchester City FC to transform the ground for football use, a new stand and 10,000 seats were also added. The stadia was also the venue for the 2008 UEFA Cup Final. The City of Manchester Stadium’s pitch is also the widest in English football[6]
7 Anfield 45,522 Liverpool Premier League 6 Proposed move to Stanley Park Stadium, with initial 61,000 capacity with the potential to rise to around 80,000
8 Villa Park 42,573 Aston Villa Premier League 7 Plans to increase capacity to at least 51,000 seats [7]
9 Stamford Bridge 42,360 Chelsea Premier League 8 Examining possible moves to Earl’s Court.
10 Goodison Park 40,569 Everton Premier League 9 Everton are currently looking at moving to a new 55,000-capacity ground.
Good old wikipedia.
Anyway this shows that we still have it least 10 grounds over 40,000 which are all grounds that could stage games for the 2018 world cup
Rules of 1 ground a city is abit of a pisstake and i can’t see why they would enforce this rule? Its not as if we’ve got more than 2 stadiums in each city apart from london
Two stadia per city is what is required not one! Thats Official!
The following Stadia will be used giving the Right Spread Across the Country as requested byu FIFA.
(Capacity shown is likey estimates, not potential or what ifs, or maybe)
London – Wembley 90,000
Emirates 60,000
Birmingham – Villa Park 53,000
Coventry – Ricoh Arena 32,000
(Depends if they move again) Mk Dons – 30,000
Manchester – Old Trafford – 81,000
City Stadium – 48,000
Liverpool – New Anfield – 65,000
– Kirby – 55,000
North East – St James Park – 51,000
Stadium of Light – 49,000
Southampton – Stadium of Light – 30.000
where is sincil bank in lincoln dat should defo b considered also, if it is only 2 stadias per city wembley nd hu cos u hav loads of mint stadiums. Olympic, emirates or stanford bridge>?
I think we will definitely see at least one new 40k stadium in a city or town that probably dosn’t have a local club that is ever likely to fill it after the world cup, I’d say Bristol is a prime candidate.
London – Wembly and Emirates.
Birmingham – Villa Park after renovation or New Birminham City Stadium
Manchester – Old Trafford, whatever size it happens to be at the time.
Liverpool – New Liverpool Stadium.
Leeds – Renovated Elland Road or new stadium, this would need money Leeds United don’t look like their going to have anytime soon. As a Leeds fan I hope this happens, I have to concied that despite being a 40k stadium Elland Road is a little tatty and wouldn’t have a chance of hosting any games as it is but I think it would make sound sense commercially to host games in Leeds since it seems that potential tourism is going to be a deciding factor and I think in that sense Leeds is up there with any of the other major cities.
Newcastle – St James’ whatever size it is at the time.
Bristol – I recon a new 40k stadium will get build there to represent the south-west.
Nottingham – New 50k stadium if it gets built. The most tourist friendly city in the East Midlands so it would represent this area (never been to Derby, but I have been to Leicester and Nottingham is nicer IMO).
Portsmouth – New stadium. Either there or Southampton to represent the South coast, I think the momentum would be with Portsmouth.
Wild cards could be Ipswich or Norwich to get East Anglia in on the act since the clubs ability to fill 40k seat after the tourniment probably won’t matter.
Sheffield could come into the reconing especially if a new or improved stadium in Leeds never materialises. Bramall Lane is supposed to be getting an increase to around 40k sometime in the future, but I don’t think that’ll be enough because it’ll still look poor. Some tasteful renovation to Hillsboro would be spot on tho.
I think the way Hull as a city is perceived at present the KC Stadium could be redeveloped is such a way as to make the San Siro look like The Shay in Halifax and it still wouldn’t have a chance. I just can’t see peoples prejudices changing enough in time.
I think there could be some real surprises when they anounce the stadiums, I think it’s possible they will go with Wembley as the only stadium to be used in London for example. And I think there will be one stadium at least that will never get anywhere near full capacity again after the tourniment.
Anyway we’ll see eh.
Portman Road should be considered as East Anglia’s Venue, due to it being larger and having better facilities than Carrow Road in Norwich. And it has the added advantage of being used as an International venue, being used for an England Friendly match, which was considered a great success for the FA.
It is important for the venues to be spread evenly throughout the country, meaning that East Anglia, should have one venue, leaving Ipswich and Norwich to battle it out!
WC 2018 should not be hosted by England. It should be held in Croatia because Croats know how to play football. English players don’t know how to play football!
P.S. Zagreb, October 2006 :
CRO – ENG 2 – 0
London, November 2007 :
ENG – CRO 2 – 3
TRAGEDY, HUGE TRAGEDY, CATASTROPHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO CROATS!!!!!!!!!!
I HOPE THEY WILL WON EURO 2008!
England have the best stadiums, the best league, the best players in the world. Italy are shit, they always have and they always will.
What does anyone think about regioanl groupings (London, NW, SW, Yorks…) instead of just 10-12 standard venues?
i think england should host the 2018 world cup but im not sure about those stadiums e.g. the KC stadium holds 25,000 as does the madjeski but leicester citys walkers stadium holds 32,000 as does the shitty ground (forest) why use those crap stadiums when we have 2 great ones in the midlands also wembley would be much easier to get to if it was in the middle of the country so why not have it there???????????UP THE FOXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
why the BeNeLux bid would be the weakest of the 3 known bids (UK, Russia, BeNeLux)?
There are a lot of advantages: the distances between the host cities are small, the performance of Euro 2000 was excellent and the stadiums (some of them must be build or extended) are modern and meet all safety requirements!
The following cities :
Belgium
*Brussels: new stadium will be build (min 60.000)
*Antwerpen: new stadium will be build (min 50.000)
*Brugge: new stadium to will build (min 42.000)
*Luik:new stadium will be build (42.000)
*Genk: now 25000;will be extended to 42.000
*Charleroi:now 25.000;extended to 42.000
Holland
*Rotterdam:new stadium will be build (90.000)
*Rotterdam:Feyenoord stadium:52.000
*Amsterdam:Arena:now 52.000;will be extended to 75.000
*Amsterdam:Olympisch Stadion:now 22.500;if necessary can be extended to 44.000
*Eindhoven:Philipsstadium:now 36.500;will be extended to 45.000
*Enschede:Grolsch Veste:now 24.000; will be extended to 42.000
*Heerenveen:Abe Lenstra Stadium:now 26.000;will be extended to 42.000
I think there are strong calls for England,Benelux,Russia and Portugal/Spain. It will be intresting to see who UEFA back.
The big debate on this is about Sunderland. thoughts?
Southampton’s St Marys Stadium holds 32,600 all seater which is rated a 4* but say they get back into the premiership they have already brought planning permission to upgrade the stadium to a 52,000 all seater stadium added two tiers to the Icthen Stand and The Northen Stand so hopefully it will be ready to host games if England get the world cup 2018.
I think there should be groups like this
Group A: London: Wembley, Emirates
Group B: South: New Portsmouth, Southampton
Group C: Midlands: Villa Pak, and Moleniux,MK,Derby,or forest
Group D: NorthWest: Anfield, Old Trafford
Group E: Yorks: Elland Road, Hillsbrough
Group F: NorthEast: Newcastle,Sunderland
I dont know what else to put in because i am not sure which grounds are being extended and whatnot
I think Sunderland shud definitly be used because it is already a world class stadium and also it has planning permission to be extended to 64,00 if needed for the world cup. Also, who wants shitty stadiums such as KC and Reading when you need to have the biggest and best grounds
PS: Is it true about the rule where you can only have one city with two stadiums
England has a strong bid because each stadium can be reached by car, train and coach in under 8 hours, or less than 1 hour by domestic flight.
This ensures that the country will be able to accommodate the need to spread the stadiums around the country to different cities. A total of 9 cities will be used from 10 stadiums. Other countries may struggle to find the required number of cities needed to host the event.
England and the cities listed have the experience of hosting major football events year round and knowing what special requirements are needed when it comes to the management and policing of thousands of football fans.
Here’s my list, by order of capacity:
London – Wembley Stadium (Group Stages, Last 16, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, Final)
Manchester – Old Trafford (Group Stages, Last 16, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals)
London – Emirates Stadium (Group Stages, Last 16, Quarter-Finals)
Liverpool – New Anfield (Group Stages, Last 16, Quarter-Finals, Third Place Playoff)
Newcastle – St James’ Park (Group Stages, Last 16)
Sunderland – Stadium Of Light (Group Stages, Last 16)
Birmingham – Villa Park (Group Stages, Last 16)
Leeds – Elland Road (Group Stages, Last 16)
Sheffield – Hillsborough (Group Stages)
Southampton – St Mary’s Stadium (Group Stages)
Coventry – Ricoh Arena (Group Stages)
Leicester – Walkers Stadium (Group Stages)
Potentially the list of stadiums required could be 12, the bottom two would be included if this is the case.
All these stadiums have an international airport within 15 miles, except for Hillsborough (best not to miss it out).
Other potentials would be the City Of Birmingham Stadium, New Nottingham Stadium and a new Bristol/Plymouth stadium, but these are still on the drawing board.
Minimum capacity for stadiums is 45,000 – Villa Park and below would need expansions until 2018. These stadiums have a realistic demand to expand.
Stadiums that missed out:
City Of Manchester Stadium – Manchester would only be allowed to have one stadium.
Twickenham – Owned by RFU, football has never been traditionally played there, London already has two venues.
Stamford Bridge – Currently unable to host major internationals due to a lack of space and access problems around the ground, this isn’t going to improve in the future.
Goodison Park – Poor outdated facilities, and likely to be closed before 2018.
White Hart Lane – Poor transport links and no current confirmed plans to upgrade.
Upton Park – Average transport links, poor location, potential closure after 2013.
Riverside Stadium – Already two venues in the North East, no real demand for expansion after the World Cup.
Portsmouth New Stadium – Even if built would be at least 9,000 under minimum capacity with no known expansion plans. Southampton has superior transport links, and an expansion of St Mary’s is far more realistic.
Norwich / Ipswich, East Anglia Stadium – Expansion to the minimum capacity of the 45,000 would be difficult at both locations, while there would be questions as to both cities abilities to host such a major international event as well as the future demand for the stadium after the World Cup.
New Everton Kirby Stadium – Like the COMS, due to only one city being able to have two host stadiums, the new Everton stadium would miss out to the larger New Anfield.
Well, that’s the masterplan as I see it. Hope we do wonders for that bid.
really, London is the only city which could have two stadiums. So Man c,everton and west ham WILL miss out
Are you sure about Man City……I always thought Man Utd were in either Salford or Manchester, which lies outside the City limits, and Eastlands was in the City Limits
Here is the Stadiums I would use
Wembley
Emirates(But if a deal could be struck with the RFU, I’d utilise Twickenham)
Villa Park
Old Trafford
New Anfield
New Forest Ground
Stadium of Light
St James’ Park
Stadium:MK
New Pompey Stadium
New South West Stadium
KC Stadium
I would put The Walkers, An East Anglia Stadium and another North West Stadium in Reserve
why does any1 want 2 go 2 middlesbrough its a shithole i shud know i live in the north-east all it has is factorys and besides tht sunderland and newcastle have by far better stadiums than boro
Just to remind everybody that Fifa has a limit on world cup venues at 40 000-45 000 and also just one venue per city if not an agreement is made. Here is what I think the venues they should play at:
(with capacity in 2018, some are not approves to expand like ex St James Park that has some buildings in the way to expand etc)
Wembley Stadium, London 90 000
Emirtates Stadium, London 60 000
Old Trafford, Manchester 96 000
Stanley Park Stadium, Liverpool 73 000 “(not built yet)
St James Park, Newcastle 60 000
Stadium of Light, Sunderland 69 500
Villa Park, Birmingham 51 000
New Nottingham Stadium, Nottingham 50 000 “(not built yet)
Elland Road, Leeds 58 500
Walkers Stadium, Leicester 55 000
(found on wikipedia….so some facts can be wrong!)
Final: Wembley
Third Place: Emirates
Semi 1: Old trafford
Semi 2: Stanley Park”
Quater-final 1: Villa Park
Quater-final 2: Stadium of Light
Quater-final 3: Elland Road
Quater-final 4: St James Park
Last 16 1: Wembley
Last 16 2: Emirates
Last 16 3: Stanley Park
Last 16 4: Old Trafford
Last 16 5: Walkers
Last 16 6: New Nottingham Ground
Last 16 7: St James Park
Last 16 8: Stadium of Light
Group A: Stanley Park
Group B: Emirates
Group C: St James Park
Group D: Stadium of Light
Group E: Wembley
Group F: Walkers
Group G: Old Trafford
Group H: Elland Road
Why are so many people misssing out Leeds? Its the third biggest city in England and its one of the best it is always winning awards for tourism and its also near York which every tourist always wants to go to. Also do you really want to show off places such as Coventry, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Leicester, Derby and Hull off to the world? Sure Elland road needs work but if the city got the world cup this would happen by rebuilding the west stand also Leeds are one of the only teams which would sell out a 50,000+ stadium after the world cup once we are back in the Premier League.
the stadium of light already has planning permission to extend the stadium to 64,000
Why are people keep saying St James Park is being extended? There is no chance of this happening at all.
The Stadium of Light has planning permission already to be extended to 55,000 and was in the 2006 wold cup failed bid with a capacity over 60,000.
If England won the world cup bid the Stadium of Light could be built up to well over 60,000 at a cost of less than £20 million.
I read a comment earlier that said Twickenham could be used. The RFU should allow it because Rugby Union has been played at Wembly (along with NFL). It is stupid to suggest that Old Trafford could not be bigger than Wembly in 10 years, MUFC have been expanding it for the past 10 years already. would be nice tho to see pride park get used as well as Reebok stadium
You only need 8 staiums to host a world cup not 10,000
By the way, the US is where the world cup should be, there are plenty of American footaball stadiums to go around that are in MUCH better shape than St. James Park, Stadium of Light, Elland Road, etc.
In the US the problem would be which stadiums to cut!
If the US hosted the world cup every stadium would have luxury boxes for optimum revenue and over 60,000 capacity for every stadium w/o renovation.
what about the “northumberland development project” – spurs new stadium to be built by 2013, will seat at least 60,000 (hopefully they’ll put in a few extra so its bigger than emirates) and will be a world class state of the art venue. why is reading and hull and mk dons etc. in there? there should be a minimum capacity of 45,000 to be used in world cup. there are already 7 stadiums this size + stamford bridge could be expanded slightly + spurs new stadium will be done by then + there will be new stadiums built specifically for the world cup if we got it anyway. this rule that the stadiums have to be spread out is the biggest load of crap – the truth is that most of the biggest and best stadiums are in london so why put them out the way for the madjeski stadium which can’t even hold 25,000. london is the capital and the biggest and the most easily accessible city in the U.K so it would make sense to put most of the games in london. if “madjeski stadium”or any stupid small stadiums are chosen over great modern stadiums like spurs new one, i won’t go….
The Emirates will never host a World Cup match, and neither will Eastlands – FIFA puts a limit of one stadium per city on the world cup, so (I assume) only Wembley could host London based WC matches
What’s the point of 24,000 seater grounds? I know they want to spread it out which is why there was talk of games at Ipswich and Bristol(I think they’d build a new stadium) and these would both 30,000+
And in all fairness, Why reading and Hull? Reading is close to London so it would be more worthwhile to have one IN london in a WORLD CLASS stadium like emirates or the spurs development. And Hull is just too small and not that far from some real stadiums.
IPSWICH’S PORTMAN ROAD should be a definate stadium for 2018. It’s the ONLY 31,000+ seater in East Anglia and we are therefore more equipped to host world cup games than Derby, Chelsea, Reading or Hull whom are all close to other, better stadiums.
IPSWICH/PORTMAN ROAD FOR 2018.
Norwich’s stadium is too small, and there are sections within the stadium where you can’t actually see the whole pitch.
If the FA are going to choose a stadium from the East, their only realistic option is Ipswich. It’s the only option that makes sense.
-bigger stadium
-lower crime-rate
-more succesful history
-World Cup winning manager Sir Alf Ramsey managed at Ipswich, as well as Sir Bobby Robson (both of whom have statues dedicated to them outside of the ground)
-better pitch (former wembley groundsman does the pitch)
-once again, BIGGER STADIUM with every seat in clear view of the pitch. Unlike Norwich’s Carrow Road.
IPSWICH FOR 2018.
Yes, Portman Road should be considered, for all of the reasons given above.
And it cannot be underestimated, that it has held an international match in the past, with great success!
It should be East Anglia’s venue for 2018, due to the relatively small amount of work needed to build it up to required standards.
Carrow Road just hasn’t the prestige or History holding big events and football teams, as Portman Road.
Choosing Portman Road would also honour the greatest manager England has ever produced, of which there is a statue to commenerate BOTH of them outside the ground.
Its tradtional, steeped in history, and if the Wolrd Cup came to Portman Road, it would be a fitting tribute to Our greatest footballing sons.
how about bramal lane about to be redeveloped to 40,000 better then hillsbrough
why not bramall lane. its about to redeveloped to over 40,000. more modern then hillsbrough.
Charlie Brown is exactly right
World Cup games at Ipswich would be a wonderful tribute to Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson.
I think that the walkers could be a good place for the world cup. yes its not the best venue. but it will be about 40,000-45,000 and it is an attractive stadium. and i dont know why people are saying no-one wants to go to leicester…its not the best place but its not that bad.
Walkers Stadium To Do Group Stages I Think.
Lol at the poster who wants to hold the WC in Italy, obviously never been there and seen that it’s infrastructure is total crap – especially its stadia. They are decades behind Britain and Germany as far as football infrastructure goes.
In aug 2007 RAND wrote
“certainley can’t see Hull or MK hosting wc games, heck getting to the Prem before 2018 is unlikely for both these clubs.
OOps.
The KC stadium was voted the best outside the Premiership for its design. Size isnt everything.
Hello guys. Greetings from Berlin to all your english football f(r)an(d)s. I would party a three nights long if England will be host of the World Cup in 2018. England is the only worthly solution for Europe!!!
(hope you understand my “English”)
You have – beside Germany – the most modern stadia around the planet – take a look to france or Italy and we both can start a laughter about them. Therefore English Premier League is the best football league in the world, England deserves to host the tournament.
England for World Cup 2018!!!
I’m so sorry for “The blues” of ManCity and Everton, but by FIFA-rules only 1 town can have two stadia, sure it will be London with “Wembley” and “Emirates Stadium”, so Manchester & Liverpool will be represented by “Old Trafford” and “New Anfield” only.
Another point by FIFA-rules is representing the whole country. After Greater London with “Wembley” and “Emirates” (no! no! no! chance for Twickenham – football only!!!) and NorthWest (Manchester & Liverpool)remains Northeast at first. Here it should be Newcastle & Sunderland, both stadia modern and approx 50.000.
Then there must be Leeds & Sheffield for Yorkshire. Well, Leeds must have a new paint and fill the corners of “Elland Road” to have more than 40.242. by today.
By the other side I have an idea for Sheffield. Why not to build a “Sheffield Arena” about 45.000 to share between “United” and “Wednesday” (Well, I think they can fill it after the World Cup) like in Munich does with “Allianz Arena” sharing between TSV 1860 & FC Bayern (shit on them!!!).
For the Midlands I prefer Birmingham & Nottingham. Though there will be build the “City of Birmingham Stadium” for 2012, I’d like to see an extended “New Villa Park” as pure football stadium to host WCmatches. For Nottingham to host the tournament the new Nott’s Ground of “Clifton Park” must be realise and to have the merely attendance of 40.000 all seater.
For the East i prefer Ipswich to be a host. There still is “Portman Road” as an 30.000 all-seater. To be extended to merely 40.000 allseater, it should be like “Shaun” said to Sir Alf Ramsey and Sir Bobby Robson to be part of World Cup 2018. (Here my english friends I should remind you that Kaiserslautern was host of Germany 2006 as tribute to Fritz Walter!)
Finally the south should be represented by Southampton. The Saint Mary’s Stadium must be developed to 40.000 or more.
Now you may say Southwest is not repesented. So my idea:
Why not Cardiff to be host??? As great town in the Southwest, Cardiff is involved in English Football League by C.City, also hosted the Finals of England’s FA-Cup-Finals during Wembley was rebuild. So why not use “Millenium Stadium” by having approx 75.000 places to be a World-Cup-Stadium???
So here my list of stadia
London Wembley 90.000
Manchester Old Trafford 76.212
Cardiff Millenium Stadium 74.500
Liverpool Stanley Park “New Anfield” 61.000
London Emirates Stadium 60.355
Newcastle Saint James’ Park 52.387
Birmingham New Villa Park 51.000
Sunderland Stadium of Light 48.583
Sheffield New Sheffield Arena 45.000*
Leeds Elland Rooad 40.242*
Ipswich New East Anglia Stadium 40.000*
Southampton New Saint Mary’s Stadium 40.000*
Nottingham Clifton Park 40.000*
*to be build / may be more capacity
Good night my friends in England!!!
I also have an idea for matches planning in group phase and final round! Interested? Let me hear somthing please.
I just can repeat: It can be only England to host WorldCup 2018!!!
REMEMBER: A match takes 90minutes, in the end Germany wins. And God save the Queen!
No good idea to give the World Cup in a football devlopping country like England. We don’t need host nation which aren’t able to qualify for the big tournaments.
Give the tournament to a country with a competitive nation team.
I am interested Smithy From “The Krauts.
I think Bristol should be a host city though, but i genrally agree with what you have said.
Arsenals Emirates satdium is unlikely to hold any world cup games unless it changes its name. FIFA require clean access to sites such as stadia and outdoor fans zones (i.e clean from marketing and logos of those companies which arent offical tournament sponsors). So unless Emirates is the offical airline of FIFA world cup 2018 or one of FIFA offical partners games wont be played at the Emirates stadium.
Hi and greetings from Berlin to England again, especially to Michael Lee.
Yes in the end you’re totally right that by representing Southwest Bristol must be host instead of Cardiff, ’cause the tournament should be in England only!!! But still I don’t know about any plans about a new stadium, can you give me more informations about Bristol stadium please!
On the other side thanks for your agreeing with me. But still I have some questions before sending matches planning. What is your english fans’ opinion: Should England by being host of the WorldCup be part of the “Opening match” or better going back to the long tradition that the last World Cup Winner should open the tournament? (Germany 2006 broke with this as you know)*** . That’s important to place WEMBLEY in the tournament plannings.
Another question: Still we talk about about 13 stadia/12 towns: London (Wembley and Emirates), Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Birmingham, Sunderland, Leeds, Nottingham, Ipswich, Southampton & Bristol. If FIFA will just allow 12 stadia, which to your opinion must be “the loser”???
Waiting for awnser, and if can you write me from where you are? So far for today, a happy new year wishing from Berlin. And God save the queen!
LONDON: 2: Wembley 90,000 (GS, QF, F), Emirates 60,000 (GS, 16, 3/4)
SOUTH EAST: 1: St. Mary’s, Southampton 50,000 (GS, 16)
SOUTH WEST: 1: New Bristol City Stadium 40/5,000 (GS, 16)
EAST: 1: Portman Road/Carrow Road, Ipswich/Norwich 40/5,000 (GS, 16)
EAST MIDLANDS: 1: Forest Stadium, Clifton/Nottingham 50,000 (GS, 16)
WEST MIDLANDS: 1: Villa Park, Birmingham 51,000 (GS, QF)
NORTH WEST: Old Trafford, Manchester 76-90,000 (GS, 16, SF) Stanley Park, Liverpool 61-78,000 (GS, 16, SF)
YORKSHIRE: 1: Elland Road, Leeds 45-55,000 (GS, QF)
NORTH EAST: 1: St. James Park, Newcastle 60,000 (GS, QF)
Then Stadium of Light, Sunderland 48,000 or Hillsborough 45,000 (GS, 16)
I think that the HOLDERS should play the opening match of an English World Cup (e.g, Brazil v Ghana at Wembley) with the Hosts (England hopefully) playing the next day at the second largest venue. If i was on the board choosing World Cup host venues, I would proably scrap Ipswich, as there is not many good reasons to have a venue there (It’s isolated from the rest of the country, average stadia)
So the cities would be… Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London(x2), Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Southampton and Sunderland.
On a different note, i think the World Cup format should be changed from 32 teams to 28 teams.
The reasons I think this is because there are too many dull games at a World Cup and decreasing the teams would make the group stages more competitive. It would be easier to pick Host stadia also, just regionalise the groups (eg, London, Midlands, NW, NE, Southern, Yorks and SW) It would also cut fatigue as there would be less match days needed in the group stages.
I think the holders should play opner.
Ricoh Arena should be a stadium cause it has brill facillities like casino hotel the new cashless system (may not use though)it has also been said it can be built bigger for 2018 possibly 40,000-46,000.
Also it is 1 of the most exspensive stadia in the country 110′000,000
Hello England! Here Smithy from Berlin again.
By deciding which stadia to host World Cup in England 2018 we always watched upon FIFA rules to host a world cup tournament saying only one town can have two stadia.
But I’ve found out something very interesting I think it could give England new options for that. So let us look on World Cup tournaments of the past:
Argentina ‘78:
Beside Buenos Aires (with “El Monumental/River Plate” and “Jose Amalfitani/Independiente”) also the City of Rosario had two stadia (with “Cordiviola” and “Arroyito”) in the tournament!!!
Spain ‘82:
Beside Madrid (with “Santiago Bernabeu/Real” and “Vicente Calderon/Atletico”) also Barcelona had two stadia (with “Nou Camp/Barca” and “Sarria/Espanyol”). Now it comes:
Also Seville as third town had two stadia (with “Sanchez Pizjuan/SFC” and “Ruiz de Lopera/Real Betis”).
Mexico ‘86:
Beside Mexico City (with “Azteca” and “Olimpico”) there was Guadalajara having two stadia (with “Jalisco” and “Tres de Marzo”). That’s not all.
Even Monterrey as third town had two stadia in the tournament:(”Tecnológico” and “Universitario”).
So this to FIFA-rules.
Now I think England can try to be host of the World Cup 2018 not only having London two have two stadia. Manchester(COM) and Everton standing in line.
OK, waiting for news. Please, if you awnser to this say what your favourite club in England is and maybe with what german club you possibly symphasize. was this correct english???.
Happy new year.
I think we should try and spread it across the country, so no second stadium in Manchester and Liverpool and Birmingham if possible! I support West Ham United and they are similar to 1860 Munchen in Germany.
Glad to meet one of “The Hammers”.
Agreeing to you I think a second stadium in Liverpool or Birmingham is out of discuss. But to my opinion there’s a good chance for Manchester. The “COM” is a modern 4Star-Stadium with more than required capacity. So adding it we’ll have the opportunity to have 12 towns with 14 stadia. If all 14 stadia see 4 matches we come to 56 matches. First round (48 matches) and Round of last 16 (8 matches) makes 56! What do you say?
Beside this: I’m a big supporter of HSV Hamburg, my favourite english team is Liverpool FC.
Just a comment about WC2006 in Germany. What a great party, celebrating all together and removing old “clinches” between England and us. I myself watched all England’s matches having a “three lions shirt” and a “LFC”-scarf on and by losing against Portugal I was really quite down on the floor. Hopefully we’ll see in South Africa in the Final, but to your best not on penalties.
Anyhow Germans and British are all the same: Beer, football and a lot of fun. So all the best that you get the World Cup 2018, that we can do celebrate the party on at “The island.”
maybe manchester will not be able to cope with 16 sets of fans coming (4 games ecah- 8, two teams playing in each 16). The citites could be
London
London
Southampton
Bristol
Birmingham
Nottingham
Manchester
Liverpool
Leeds
Sheffield
Newcastle
Sunderland
Ipswich
Plymouth/3rd midlands stadium
But believe me, stick by FIFA rules and we will win.
After all discussing in the end we will have 12 stadia by FIFA-rules and only London having two. There should be 7 stadia guarranteed (list following). The other 5 should be find by an inner competition, maybe by official voting by your english fans including the state of stadium capacity, touristing attractions, number of city-inhabitants etc; making sure that all parts of England are represented (merely 1 stadium in each part).
List:
FOR GREATER LONDON
2 stadia guarranteed, NO competition, Wembley and Emirates.
FOR NORTHWEST
2 stadia guarranteed, NO competition, Old Trafford and New Anfield.
FOR NORTHEAST
2 stadia guarranteed, NO competition, St James’ Park and Stadium of Light.
YORKSHIRE
1 stadium guaranteed, a 2nd possible.
Competition between Hillsborough and Elland Road
MIDLANDS
1 stadium guarranteed (New Villa Park), a 2nd guarranteed.
Competition between Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Coventry, Leicester and Milton Keynes
FOR EAST
1stadium guarranteed / NO 2nd possible!!!
Competition between Norwich and Ipswich
FOR SOUTHWEST
1stadium guarranteed / NO competition, New Bristol Stadium.
FOR SOUTH
1 stadium guarranteed / a 2nd possible.
Competition between Plymouth, Southampton and Portsmouth.
So we will have the 7 guarranteed stadia, the 4 winners of the competition of Yorkshire, Midlands, East and South (11). The 12th and last stadium should be the “lucky loser” of the competition with the most votes using the chance of “a 2nd possible”.
Especially to Michael Lee: Can you give me your internet-adress anyway?
If you don’t want it over the web no problem! Per phone??? Would give you number. All for tonight , good luck for “The Hammers”!
How did Germany choose their venues for 2006? just wondering.
Also, how would you allocate games. Would you copy the German 2006 way of 2 seed, 2 unseed. Or could you with 12 stadiums give the 24 unseeded teams a home base (two each venue, e.g Bristol, Ghana and Sweden) Seeded teams would have to play across country. This would give a home base to “littler” nations.
I think it would be fine to have the matches of each group in the first round always in a different town (except England playing all three matches or merely twice at Wembley), this is possible I already tried to make a plan about that.
The HOLDER could play in Group A with opening match at Wembley, the other two matches having at Old Trafford and New Anfield.
England as host could play in Group E (E like England) having its three matches at Wembley (Possible also is two at Wembley and the 3rd at Old Trafford). By this in the further way of the tournament England could meet the HOLDER (if both come through) just in the Final.
This also means that towns like Bristol or Sheffield (if chosen to be a host) won’t only host dull matches (eg Saudi Arabia-Costa Rica or Tunisia-Iran) by having the guarrantee to host matches of Spain, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Netherlands or France (if they do qualify).
If you want to have the whole tournament plan I don’t know if the capacity of writing on this page of “Leave A Comment” is enough.
Any idea???
To your other question: For Germany2006 I think it was German Football Association (DFB) deciding in the end. I believe Berlin, Dortmund, Munich, Schalke, Frankfurt, Cologne and Stuttgart were seeded, the other in competition, but I’m not quite sure about it. I will search for that and try to find out giving you awnser.
Beside this: Does your sympathy for 1860 Munich come from the European-Final of 1965??? By this, congratulations for winning the Cup!
Go on Hammers, time to see you in Euro-Cup-matches again!!!
I have found awnser for Germany2006 stadia. 16 towns made an official application to D.F.B. to host WCmatches: Berlin, Bremen, Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen (Schalke), Hamburg, Hannover, Kaiserslautern, Leipzig, Leverkusen, Munich, Mönchengladbach, Nuremburg and Stuttgart.
Then Leverkusen removed application by seeing no chance in the west part against Dortmund, Schalke, Cologne, M’Gladbach and Düsseldorf.
At first from the left 15 there were 6 places seeded by D.F.B. and by FIFA-agreeing in regional status and stadium capacity: Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Schalke, Munich and Stuttgart.
At second from the left 9 applicators by regional status Kaiserslautern (for SouthWest), Nuremburg (no other choice around) and Leipzig (to have a second stadium in the East) were chosen, although these stadia have less capacity than other stadia that lost.
So 9 stadia were seeded to be host, the last 3 to host WCmatches were in competition deciding by D.F.B. with FIFA-agreement.
First winner was Frankfurt for regional reason, number of inhabitants and having stadium with capacity required.
Second winner was Hannover. To have a second stadium in the North Hannover won against Bremen by regional reason and stadium capacity.
The last stadium should be 3rd representing the West. There won Cologne by nearly 1million inhabitants and great stadium against Mönchengladbach and Düsseldorf.
So the 12 stadia were chosen.
Regional aspects came before stadium capacity: Düsseldorf and Mönchengladbach with over 50.000 not chosen for having Leipzig and Kaiserslautern.
Now this stadia search overlooked by FIFA transferring to England’s application. We do make it and we’ll win it!!!
WELL I think it’s quite easy having 12 stadia around the whole country:
1,2 LONDON: Wembley & Emirates
3,4 NORTH WEST: Manchester & Liverpool
5,6 NORTHEAST: Newcastle & Sunderland
7,8YORKSHIRE: Leeds & Sheffield
MIDLANDS: Birmingham
SOUTHWEST: Bristol
SOUTH: Competition of appliciars as Southampton, Portsmouth eg
EAST: Norwich/Ipswich
I’m not sure why the Reebok Stadium hasn’t been included. It holds just short of 30,000, has great transportation links and is a generally great and modern stadium with room for slight expansion if required.
I’m not being funny but the Madejski stadium and KC stadium are crap. I ahve been to both and it seems they were purchased from Ikea. Very basic, limited room on concourse and are both smaller than the Reebok.
give the whole tournament thing a go, worth a try. West Ham’s only chance of getting into europe is through the FA Cup, so it’s unlikley we’ll be in europe any time soon. Who is going to win the Bundesliga. Hamburg? Bayern? or Hoffenheim!
I’ll send tournament plan as soon as I can. But it will increase much of details / hopefully message comes through.
Damn shit on Bayern! Like we “Krauts” say you love them or you hate them. (I do really hate them). Hoffenheim to me is like boring Chelsea: Money, money, money from Gazprom/SAP to win titles. Bullshit!!!
And well, you’re near to the right: I pray HSV will win (hopefully) first time since 26 years. By this I want Liverpool winning PL for 1990 last time.
Come on WestHam.
HERE FINALLY TOURNAMENT PLAN! 1ST PART!
Note: this is just an example for the hosting stadia at World Cup 2018 in England!
THE DECISION OF HOSTING STADIA
By FIFA-rules there have to be 10-12 stadia by only one town having two. All parts of England should be represented making sure the World-Cup-tournament is spread all over the whole country.
So there are the towns seeded, hosting matches of group phase and final round: London (Wembley and Emirates), Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sunderland, Sheffield and Leeds.
By regional reasons also chosen to host matches of World Cup in group phase: Bristol, Ipswich and Southampton.
RULES FOR THE STADIA IN TOURNAMENT
1st
The World Cup 2018 in England will take 31 days starting with the opening match by the holder on a Friday to end with the Final on a Sunday. All towns will host 4 matches merely.
2nd
Between matches in own town must be a break of one day merely, especially London having two stadia (except last two days of the tournament having London to host match for 3rd place at “Emirates” and Final at “Wembley”.
3rd
All towns can host only one match of a group in group phase to make sure spreading the tournament all over the country (except “Wembley” hosting England’s matches twice in group phase).
4th
The holder is seeded to be head of Group A having opening match at Wembley, playing the two following in group phase at the large stadia of Manchester and Liverpool; staying at Liverpool for final round if winning the group.
5th
England as host is seeded to group E (E like England) to make sure to meet the holder in further way of the tournament just in Final (if both come through), playing first two matches of group phase at “Wembley” and 3rd at “Old Trafford”. If being group-winner England plays Round of Last16 and Quarter-Final again at “Wembley” to return to “Old Trafford” for Semi-Final.
6th
If the teams being seeded as head of the group in the draw (England, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Germany…) do win their group they can stand for Round of Last16 in the stadium of their last group match (except Winner of Group C having last group match at “Wembley” going back to first match host “Old Trafford” because England if winning group goes back to “Wembley” in Round of Last 16.
PLAN, SECOND PART!
To all these facts list of of the stadia in tournament per day. Numbers stand for day to play, letters for group at first round or kind of matches in final round.
TOWN STADIUM CAPACITY TOTAL
London Wembley Stadium 90.000
1A 5E 9E 13C / 18EF 23QF 31F 7
Manchetser Old Trafford 76.212
2C 6A 11H 14E / 17EF 22QF 27SF 7
Liverpool New Anfield 70.000*
2B 6H 9D 12A / 16EF 22QF 26SF 7
Newcastle St James’ Park 52.387
3C 7A 11H 15G / 19EF 23QF 6
Birmingham New Villa Park 51.000**
2B 6H 10G 14F / 18EF 5
London Emirates Stadium 60.355
3D 7B 11G 15H / 30P 5
Sunderland Stadium of Light 48.853
1A 4F 8C 12B / 16EF 5
Sheffield New Sheffield Arena 45.000*
4E 7B 10F 13D / 17EF 5
Leeds New Elland Road 45.000**
5G 10F 13D 15H / 19EF 5
Bristol New Bristol Stadium 40.000*
5G 9E 12B 14F 4
Ipswich Portman Road 40.000**
3D 8C 12A 14E 4
Southampton St Mary’s Stadium 40.000**
4F 8D 13C 15G 4
PLAN, THIRD PART : GROUP PHASE!
* means to be build / ** to be modernized and/or extended
In the following whole tournament:
GROUP A GROUP B
Friday, Wembley 18.00 Saturday, Liverpool 15.00
Opening match A1(Holder) vs A2 B1 vs B2
Friday, Sunderland 21.00 Saturday, Birmingham 18.00
A3 vs A4 B3 vs B4
Wednesday, Manchester 21.00 Thursday, Emirates, 15.00
A1 (Holder) vs A3 B1 vs B3
Thursday, Newcastle 18.00 Thursday, Sheffield 21.00
A2 vs A4 B2 vs B4
Tuesday, Ipswich 17.00 Tuesday, Bristol 21.00
A2 vs A3 B2 vs B3
Tuesday, Liverpool 17.00 Tuesday, Sunderland 21.00
A1 (Holder) vs A4 B1 vs B4
GROUP C GROUP D
Saturday, Manchester 21.00 Sunday, Emirates 18.00
C1 vs C2 D1 vs D2
Sunday, Newcastle 15.00 Sunday, Ipswich 21.00
C3 vs C4 D3 vs D4
Friday, Ipswich 15.00 Friday, Southampton 21.00
C1 vs C3 D1 vs D3
Friday, Sunderland 18.00 Saturday, Liverpool 15.00
C2 vs C4 D2 vs D4
Wednesday, Wembley 17.00 Wednesday, Sheffield 21.00
C1 vs C4 D1 vs D4
Wednesday, Southampton 17.00 Wednesday, Leeds 21.00
C2 vs C3 D2 vs D3
GROUP E GROUP F
Monday, Sheffield 15.00 Monday, Southampton 18.00
E3 vs E4 F3 vs F4
Tuesday, Wembley 15.00 Monday, Sunderland 21.00
ENGLAND vs E2 F1 vs F2
Saturday, Bristol 18.00 Sunday, Sheffield 15.00
E2 vs E4 F2 vs F4
Saturday, Wembley 21.00 Sunday, Leeds 18.00
ENGLAND vs E3 F1 vs F3
Thursday, Wembley 17.00 Thursday, Old Trafford 21.00
ENGLAND vs E4 F1 vs F4
Thursday, Ipswich 17.00 Thursday, Bristol 21.00
E2 vs E3 F2 vs F3
GROUP G GROUP H
Tuesday, Leeds 18.00 Wednesday, Birmingham 15.00
G1 vs G2 H1 vs H2
Tuesday, Bristol 21.00 Wednesday, Liverpool 18.00
G3 vs G4 H3 vs H4
Sunday, Birmingham 21.00 Monday, Newcastle 18.00
G1 vs G3 H1 vs H3
Monday, Emirates 15.00 Monday, Manchester 21.00
G2 vs G4 H2 vs H4
Friday, Newcastle 17.00 Friday, Leeds 21.00
G1 vs G4 H1 vs H4
Friday, Southampton 17.00 Friday, Emirates 21.00
G2 vs G3 H2 vs H3
FINAL ROUND / LAST 16
Saturday, Liverpool 17.00 A1 vs B2 (Holder?)
Saturday, Sunderland 21.00 B1 vs A2
Sunday, Manchester 17.00 C1 vs D2
Sunday, Sheffield 21.00 D1 vs C2
Monday, Wembley 17.00 E1 vs F2 (England?)
Monday, Birmingham 21.00 F1 vs E2
Tuesday, Newcastle 17.00 G1 vs H1
Tuesday, Leeds 21.00 H1 vs G2
QUARTERFINALS
Friday, Liverpool 17.00 Winner L16 Liverpool vs L16 Sheffield
Friday, Manchester 21.00 Winner L16 Sunderland vs L16 Manchester
Saturday, Wembley 17.00 Winner L16 Wembley vs L16 Leeds (England?)
Saturday, Newcastle 21.00 Winner L16 Birmingham vs L16 Newcastle
SEMIFINALS
Tuesday, Liverpool 21.00 Winner QF Liverpool vs QF Manchester
Wednesday, Manchester 21.00 Winner QF Wembley vs QF Newcastle
FINALS
Saturday, Emirates 21.00 Match for 3rd place
Sunday, Wembley 21.00 World Cup Final
nice one.
To my shame made one mistake. I’ve given 6 matches to Newcastle and 5 to Birmingham. If being conesquently on rules: both have nearly same capactity (if “New Villa Park” extended) but Birmingham, being the only host at Midlands, as 2nd largest town of England by number of inhabitants must have 6 matches and Newcstle to have 5. Exchange both in tournament plan and all is fine.
I still believe that we should have a 28 team tournament because there are too many dull games at a World Cup and decreasing the teams would make the group stages more competitive. It would be easier to pick Host stadia also, just regionalise the groups (eg, London, Midlands, NW, NE, Southern, Yorks and SW) It would also cut fatigue as there would be less match days needed in the group stages.
Last week I heard about Spain and Portugal deciding to make an official application to be host of 2018 together. For reasons of respect and fairness we’ll let them have their chance, but in the end they will not have any. I have talked to many friends of mine and they all want the same: we want YOU to host it. SO COME ON, ENGLAND!!!
…
Gute Arbeit hier! Gute Inhalte.
To the “Hammer ML”: What does “…”mean? Further contact ?
it means no one is talking, like slience
anyway, back on topic, they say that Twickenham might be used. I am personally against it because the world cup should be played at football stadiums, but i am not sure.
Hi Hammer ML! Welcome back! Totally agreeing: only pure football satdia. No Twickenham!!! Now take a look at the possible hosts of WC 2018: Mexico (still having the tournament twice ‘70 and ‘86′) and the U.S.A. should be stand stand in line for 2022 – in competition with Australia!
Italy and France want European Championship 2016, so only Spain/Portugal could break our dream. But there still is China applicating. Hope that England DOES IT!!!
Other side: If the Hammers go on like now… UEFA-Cup? To my shame H.S.V. lost last second matches, but won DFB-Cup Quarterfinal last Wednesday
The latest article in England says that Hull could stage matches (ahead of either Sheffield or Leeds). I think that matches should be played in the big cities, with carnival atmopshere and big stadiums.
What is everyones thoughts on training camps and bases for teams. Maybe this is a better way to spread the World Cup across the country.
Hull? I can’t believe that. Just sounds like we had Germany2006 at Bochum, Bielefeld or Cottbus!?!? Only the big cities with the stadia of amazing atmosphere to be host matches. We want to have the “goose-flesh-feeling” of Old Trafford, Anfield, StJames Park, VillaPark and so on… I totally agree with you. Towns like Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Coventry or (dull) Hull e.g. can be used as trainings camps as you say.
Hull??? I can’t believe that! Did we “Krauts” had Germany2006 at Bochum, Bielefeld and Cottbus? We want to visit you in 2018 in the big cities with the stadia of amazing atmosphere. We want to have the “Gänsehaut”-feeling (like we say in German) of Anfield, Villa Park, Old Trafford, StJames Park and so on. I totally agree with Michael. Towns like Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Coventry or Hull can be used as training camps.
What about Elland Road? Why does the city of Leeds have to keep missing out. It’s as good as Villa Park and bigger than a new McStadium like St Mary’s. St Mary’s and Stadium MK are not world cup, neither is Pride Park, and Leeds is more accessible, what with being at the end of the M1
I would choose Leeds as well, but some papers are suggesting that they will not.
Leeds of course to host the World Cup. In my comments of the past Elland Road always was part of my list of stadia. Isn’t it one of the biggest cities of England? May be new paint and filling the corners to have possible attendance of approax 47.000??? Do the papers say Leeds won’t be because United will not soon return to Premier League?
I remember you Leipzig hosted Germany2006, but the both clubs of the town play in 4th GermanLeague (FC Sachsen) and in 5th (1.FC Lok)! Stadium and number of inhabitants must go first! So Leeds for England 2018! Greetings from Berlin!
some of the stadia shown above are poor and we’ll never win with that bid.
what about the new stadia being built or have plans to be extended etc
mk dons can’t be improved much more
pride park isnt the biggest in the east midlands (forest could have a new ground and walkers stadium could be improved to 55000 if they cement a place in the premierleague (not saying it will happen but surely it could be extended for the world cup))
elland road could be improved or even have a new one made as they are such a well supported club.
ce sera un signe de rapprochement entre les deux pays
Sorry Visitors! This is only to Michael Lee in England!!!
Yes we’ve done it! I’m sooo proud: after 22 years an European-Cup Quarter-Final for H.S.V. Our “Turkish friends” leaded with two goals… and then the unbelieveble return of us to win 3-2. You cannot imagine how lucky I’m tonight. So come on “Hammers” and I hope we’ll see in England 2018.
People banging on about Hillsborough and Elland Road. Have you actually seen these grounds recently ? The only stadium in Yorkshire that would be able to host the World Cup in 2018 is Bramall Lane. Oldest ground in the world where league football is still being played and looking good at the moment. Already plans in place to extend the “KOP” and will be 40,000+ by 2018 ! Leave Elland Road and Hillsborough alone, they are both old and dated.
Bristol City’s new ground should get a game for the WC the stadium would hold 40,000+ and it’s being designed to have a great atmosphere, with the stadium supposidly ready by 2013 if everything goes well it will only be 5 or 6 years old as well.
TBH i cannot see most of those stadiums being rebuilt/extended and with the requirement capacity a fair bit larger i think we can rule out St Mary’s (financial reasons), Hull City – new stadium would be a waste getting a new 1 and stadium seems difficult to expand,
Very nice site!
Greetings from Berlin to England.
Today is a very sad day because we also do remember the catastrophy at “Hillsborough” between Liverpool and Nottingham twenty years ago. We will never forget. Let it never happen again!
These are just a number of letters, but they really are the tears in our eyes and the flowers for the ones who died. Germany is by your side.
Danbo.
What are you on about? Hillsborough is not in a state where it cannot be repaired. It is more than a worthy rival to your Bramall lane, and I believe as a neutral Hillsborough is a better ground than BL. Its only recently where Hillsboroughs fallen behind BL, if SWFC get their act together Hillsborough will run away and leave BL behind.
Hi everyone.
Just at this moment, i am quite interested in where the training camps would be. I propose using the big cities for matches, but wouldn’t a more imaginative way of spreading the tournament across the country is by using them as training bases. Even Wales and Scotland could be used! I will use a few examples.
Brazil in North Wales
Spain in Plymouth
Holland in Ipswich
Italy in Coventry
Germany in the Lake District
Argentina in Brighton
France in Hull
Not very good examples, but just an idea in to which others can take inspiration. Instead of small towns spending lots to extend stadia, they spend a fraction of that money to upgrade training facillties.
This could also reward towns that have been part of English history such as Preston, Blackpool, Blackburn, Derby, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Norwich. While also spreading the tournament across Britain.
Isn’t there a limit on how many stadia per city you’re allowed? I heard that you can have no more than two stadia per city and only one city is allowed to have more than one stadium in use.
To “Gallers”: This is absolutely correct!
What’s up? Nobody here anymore? Beside this: “Hammer ML” you know I’m a big supporter of H.S.V. We can come to UEFA-Cup-Final this thursday. What a great chance!!! Hope you’re on my side!
I am here. In England, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield have summbitted bids to the FA to host world cup matches. Wembley has been confirmed and FA delegates have visited Bristol and Nottingham.
Hallo again Hammer ML! I think we both were right by choosing stadia for 2018. Liverpool of course, Leeds and Sheffield as we both always said. And we also wanted Bristol for the West/Southwest. Nottingham to me is OK, but does it come in the final twelve???
…I’m praying down on my knees because of next thursday…
hi again, so what about training camps anyone?
Hi again! I’m down to the floor for H.S.V. losing in 19 days the chance of winning merely one title. And the most pain is that it always was on or arch-enemy of Werder Bremen: in German Cup-Semifinal by penalties, in UEFA-Cup-Semifinal by goals in a away-match, and in Bundesliga by losing last Sunday. Can you imagine how I suffer…
Now to training camps: I would put them to towns and stadia not chosen to host World-Cup-matches, but having required infrastructure, good stadium, near to to towns that really host the World Cup and especially having a traditional past in England’s football history. I don’t know about the condition of the stadia, but I would prefer towns like Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Coventry, Nottingham (if chosen not to be host), Wolverhampton, Preston, Norwich, Leicester, and even London with Upton Park and White Hart Lane, and so on…
What do you think about that?
This must be: Come on H.S.V., come on Liverpool and (especially to ML)come on West Ham!!! Till then.
well, as far as i am concerned, these are the stadiums for the job:
Wembley, London 90,000
Old Trafford, Manchester 76,212
Emirates, London 60,355
St James’, Newcastle 52,387 (Plans for 60,000)
Stanley Park, Liverpool 60,000-73,000
Villa Park, Birmingham 42,055
Elland Road, Leeds 39,460 (Needs a bit of work though)
Pride Park, Derby 33,597 (Plans for 44,000)
Bramall lane, Sheffield 32,702 (+3,000 more this summer and plans for 40,000+ seats pending a return to the premiership or a sucessful WC bid)
New Nottingham Forest Ground 50,000 (Pending on a sucessful WC bid)
New Portsmouth Ground 36,000 (Rising to 45,000 with sucessful WC bid)
New Bristol City Ground 30,000 (Plans for 40,000 with sucessful WC bid)
MK Stadium 30,000. not yet it is’nt still half done. what a joke
Twickenham hasn’t been officially mentioned because I imagine the FA and RFU are still in talks.
The RFU want to use Wembley, Emirates, Old Trafford and Anfield for their 2015 Rugby World Cup bid so I imagine the natural trade-off will be allowing Twickenham to be used for the FIFA World Cup bid.
I’d rather not have it in the UK than allow a franchise outfit host a game….MK has no history or affiliation with football and should not be hosting football league games let alone world cup group games….If this happens we have definetly sold our souls to the devil and the end is nigh….UP THE HATTERS!!!
A World Cup hosted in England really ought to be made the best it could possibly be.
As such, overlooking an 82,000 all-seater in Twickenham would be criminal. Especially since the likes of Old Trafford and Ashburton Grove are being suggested for the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and Wales’ Millenium Stadium has (rightly) been ruled out.
No way to the MK option
Pete Winkelman will get his plastic football club a bright fancy stadium expansion
I back every aspect of this bid apart from any plans to recognise stadium:MK as a viable option
when fans from other countries come to the UK and see their country play in stadium:mk they will look into the club which plays there and think that this franchised monstrosity will be acceptable in english football
This is the list of host cities which have bid to stage the world cup
1. Birmingham
2. Bristol
3. Derby
4. Hull
5. Leeds
6. Leicester
7. Liverpool
8. London
9. Manchester
10. Milton Keynes
11. Newcastle
12. Nottingham
13. Portsmouth
14. Sheffield
15. Sunderland
We had better get the World Cup. Our stadia set rules This looks like a fantastic World Cup already. I think Goodisson should have a game, and maybe one of the Sheffield stadiums, preferably Hillsborough.
why isin’t portsmouth fratton park (new updated fratton park) to offical website said it is can you please update this and put it on there please?
I believe 10 host cities and stadiums is more than enough. Two in London, possibly two in Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham, Newcastle and one in the South east or west. No real suprises, although some need definite upgrading, maybe even one or two brand new purpose built stadia.
The smaller towns who want to be involved can provide bases and training facilities.
Why are people slagging off mk?, i support shrewsbury but stadium mk is lovely, it has a gr8 atmospere and should be a ground used,
dont see why we dont use hamden park in scotland as a semi final arena but that down to the fa
now lets stop bitching and get behidnd the fa and make 2018 possible!!!
The main factor in determining host cities won’t be the issue of stadia, but down to the infrastrucure, i.e transport links, hotels etc and the ability to cope with the numerous visitors who will be coming from all over the world.
As such the only cities I see as certs to host games are London,Birmingham,Manchester,Leeds & Liverpool. Probably 2 venues in London and/or maybe Manchester.
Of the rest probably Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle & Bristol would be the favourites. Nothing against them but would be very suprised if Hull, Milton Keynes & Portsmouth were selected.
Nothing against MK, Hull & Portsmouth but can’t see them being selected as they don’t have the infrastructure required in terms of transport links, hotels etc. Forget stadiums, this will be the main criteria used and as such I think only London,Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool are certs to be host cities. Of the rest probably Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle & Bristol would be favourites.
Here is my choice of stadia:
Anfield
Old Trafford
St. James Park
Villa Park
Elland Road
The Emirates
New Wembley
St. Mary’s
Maybe:
Portman Road
Bristol City’s new stadium
The official England bid website names Liverpool’s “New Anfield” as a possible stadium…. Over my dead body will that hideous monstrocity be constructed. Anfield is one of the most famous and renowned stadia in the world. It is crammed with history and tradition and must remain the home of Liverpool F.C. Anybody that disagrees with me is either a share-holder who knows exactly how much revenue will be generated by a high capacity stadium, or a short-sighted Liverpool “Fan” who would sell the soul of LFC for silverware. A “Fan” with no real values other then their
materialistic values.
SAVE ANFIELD.
SAY NO TO CORPORATE EXPLOITATION OF BRITISH FOOTBALL CLUBS!!!!
What about Sheffield? Centre of the country, and Bramall Lane (United) is fantastic. Yes, I’m a Blade and biased, but with the work planned for the East (Kop) stand, by 2018, it’ll be marvellous. Hillsborough (yes, again, I’m biased) may have the capacity, but is an ugly, old eyesore and needs more than a lick of paint.
id just like to point out pride park in derby will have a capacity of over 44,000 not 40,000
plus we have great a great training facility (moor Farm) for the nations to use and with the national training centre in burton to be completed just down the road aswell derby looks a good choice
milton keynes ent a shit city mate n those stadiums r sorted 4 da world cup 2018
Question to Michael: Is this an official list? By F.A.?
Question to Hammer ML: Is this an official list of application, is there limit of time left? Is this by F.A.?
this is by the fa yes.
To list of F.A. I do wonder why East England is not applicating by Ipswich and/or Norwich and I also miss the application of Southampton… strange! By 12 stadia to host England 2018 and by London having two therefore 11 towns to be chosen.
London (Wembley and Emirates), Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham must be seeded. Then I would prefer – like I always mentionend in my comments – Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield and Sunderland. The two last to choose – as F.A. list says – between Derby, Hull, Leicester, Milton Keyenes, Nottingham and Portsmouth.
This is only to The Hammer ML: I’m so sorry for you! Only three points away from returning to Europe. But does it have to be Fulham in the end to be the lucky one? After all missing in the last weeks HSV had to win last Bundesliga-match to qualify for the Europa-League! Thank the Lord winning against Frankfurt by a goal in 92min. The Luck finally, finally returned to us.
has anyone thought about hillsborough stadium in sheffield
i know it needs some work but it holds over 40,000. and as im aware Sheffield Wednesday new Board members are already planning a revamp of the stadium.
hillsborough has hosted internationals before and is use to Big games, fair enough not for a while but surely the heritage of the groung should be enough to get it least short listed at least.
Of the 15 cities that have bid (Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Sunderland) I would personally choose to take away Derby, Hull, Milton Keynes, and Sunderland. I would include Stamford Bridge along with Wembley for London, as the bridge is in southern london, whereas emirates and wembley are in northern london. it is important that we have different parts.
To Steve Towning: Don’t you ever heard about rules by FIFA to host world cup? Only one town can have two stadia. Surely it will be London but look at all the comments before: Stamford Bridge will have no chance against “Emirates” and “Wembley”!
Realistic Plan …
Final – Wembley 90,000
Semi Finals
-Old Trafford 76,000
-Emirates Stadium 60,000
Quarter Finals and Other Knockouts
- St James Park 60,000
- New Anfield 60,000
- Villa Park 52,000
- City of Manchester Stadium 48,500
Group Games
- Stadium of Light 46,000
- St Marys 40,000
- Walkers Stadium 40,000
- Ricoh Arena 40,000
Based on existing stadia which will be expanded, ignoring most new stadia which probably will not be built!!!!
why italy? because they have 2 big stadiums…who have 2 teams sharing the stadium
spurs new stadium 50,000 + why aint i heard it and also it should be quarter final hosting
i personally think that Hillsborough is a definite possibility. As a loyal season ticket holder for the Owls, i may be a tad biased, but it has a lot more to offer than Bramall Lane. It is in a more convenient place – BL is bang in the middle of the city where traffic is literally hell, whereas Hillsborough is just a few miles out of the centre, away from the havoc, yet still very, very easy to find. I think that though Hillsborough is looking dated, it’s nothing that a lick of paint and a wee renovation couldn’t fix. It has much more character than BL, and has a tradition to match. Scrap the soup bowl stadiums, let’s get back to the traditional football stadiums – Hillsborough being a prime example.
Sunderland has the potential to reach the capacity of 64,000 making that a certain host city
If Sheffield to be host(I do hope that), then “New Hillsborough”
Woohoo! Go Emirates stadium.
the new liverpool stadium hardly has any exits though it looks pretty cool on the outside
I think that come 2018 many stadiums will be too outdated anyway. So a selected few many have to be gutted out such as the Olympic stadium in Germany. Newer built stadiums are more likely to be selected. Stada quality has changed since Euro 96! Places such as Hillsborough and Villa Park do not offer the same Facilities/tourist packages as London or Manchester. And many peoples lists are purely based on which clubs they follow or dislike!!!!!!!
Although I am in favour of it being equally spread out throughout England. Club status will not matter aslong as the stadium fits FIFA requirements: capacity (min 40,000) the current 2 stadiums per city. FIFA would select exactly 12.
Why isn’t Forest’s new ground listed. It’s a brand new 50,000 seated stadium, I’m amazed Derby have put there attempt of a stadium in the hat
I believe that all except Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Derby have offically summitted bids for hosting world cup bids.
hosting world cup matches*
Are most of the posters on here blind? The bid is for ENGLAND to host the 2018 World cup if it was a joint uk bid then they would have to give England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland all free passage to the finals which FIFA would never do so PLEASE stop putting forward Stadia outside of England. It is not allowed under the rules also try looking at all the rules you have to apply to host the games and supply sufficient places for fans to gather so you need a fair sized city to have all the requirements that have to be met. Just for once I wish people would put aside their my back yard is bettr than yours attitude and look at the bid as a whole and realise there are many requirements for the host cities to meet and many of the places mentioned wouldnt meet the requirements. For example those who say ts wrong to have the World Cup only in London then suggest almost only Stadia in the North and Midlands.
Pride park holds 33,597 to win the bid we need to be accurate and not amatuerish!
As for Sheffield:
Hillsborough needs a biggish revamp, the away stand is simply not up to standards and this would need a complete new stand. Other area’s of the ground too will need redeveloping and an addition 500 seats at least will be needed to achieve 40,000 which is minimum for games.
However at this present time the money is not there at Hillsborough and so they are reliant on grants, plus no plans are currently in place.
However the history of Semi finals and Euro 96 matches mean it has status. Plus it is nearly at that 40k mark, plus Hillsborough park next to it for pre-match build up.
Bramall Lane has seen some great improvements recently and with an addition with a new Hotel and it’s close proximity to the centre of Sheffield it is favourable. However capacity at 32,700 it needs an additional 10,000 at least. However plans are in place (and approved I believe) to expand the Kop to 36/37k whatever happens with the bid. Additional plans to redevelop the South Stand are also drawn up which would leave capacity at 44,000.
As for pre-match build up the city centre could accomodate somewhere along the way, plus there are idea’s in place to redevelop a nearby road into a cultural town (Like a chinatown) however with a mix of cultures.
As for the city itself, well currently in the middle of redevelopment and presently part of the city is waiting on go ahead for construction.
However much has been regenerated and there is choice of shopping including Meadowhall, good nightlife, some good galleries and very close to the Peak District.
Not to mention the sporting culture with many championships hosted yearly and the oldest football club in the world Sheffield FC.
I am a Blade and Brammal lane is becoming the citys number football venue the u21 game was a good test and was passed with flying colours the plans for the stadium are amazing and i disgree with the stamenet about it been in the centre of town . The Hotels are in the centre and within walking distance of all the ammenties and been in the centre of town excellent transport links.
Hilsborough has hosted events but its too far out of town and transport links are ok and it needs a lot of work doing to it to be at the standard.
Hillsborough surely! Sheffield’s a great city. Some good points there dave but surely the government can dip into pocket to make it look a bit nicer and add 500 or so seats!
why newcastle there in the champship portsmouth have the best stadia to be built.
Lets look at this in the right way. Who remembers France ‘98 and the problems which were encountered with regrads to ticket availability and the fact that you were more likely to get a ticket if you were French than if you came from either of the two countries actually playing each other!!!
To make sure everyone who wants to, actually stands a chance of seeing a game AND having the ability to present this to FIFA, the stadiums need to have the capacity…
SA2010 is spread over 10 stadiums, minimum capacity is 40,000, maximum 95,000 and average of 54,800.
We (England) are proposing 15 stadiums, minimum capacity of 24,200, maximum 90,000 and average of 46,066.
Statistically speaking, we are offering less than SA???!!! AND we can’t deliver (from the list above) 10 stadiums capable of holding 40k or more (which surely must be a minimum requirement). If we do not achieve that then why would FIFA choose us over Spain?
Our other problem is that we are competing against Australia – not only have they never hosted a world cup, they are from a continent that has never held a world cup, and ’soccer’ is developing substantially there etc, etc… I don’t see anything on this site that encourages me to believe that we have a good proposal – maybe the FA should get some of that Premier money and help upgrade our stadiums and make England look like a better option, not just a different one – and not worry about whether Sheffield or Reading can host – use the stadiums we have including the Olymics one maybe….
Stadiums that ought to stage world cup games (if England are elected of course)should be between….
London
1,Wembley
2,The Emirates
West Midlands
1,Villa Park
2, A revamped Moleneux
East Midlands
1, Pride Park
2, walkers Stadium
North West
1, Old Trafford
2, Ewood Park – there’s simply no other choice because Ewood Park is the only other ground in the North West that could possibly benefit from an increased capacity.
Yorkshire
1, Elland Rd
2, Bramall Lane – with plans to expand the ground to 44k & all amenaties a stones throw away it has to come before Hillsborough.
North East
1, St James Park
2, An extended Riverside Stadium.
Take Ewood Park out of the equation & add the new Anfield.
Greetings from Germany again! England for 2018!
In another Case: Yesterday I watched here in Berlin Friendly Match between 1.FC Union and FC Schake 04. You cannot imagine the atmosphere! Stadium was rebuild by the fans themselves. It’s fantastic, audience always singing and screaming. Here it comes: met two persons from YOUR ISLAND (both coming from Ipswich) who visit the match. Asked them how to come to 1.FC Union and they replied: Never had a greater atmosphere outside of England. Both bought a season-ticket. wait two years and the Worker-Club is in Bundesliga – and then Hertha BSC is dead! Watch one time 1.FC Union – it’s a dream. See you in England 2018. Special greetings to ML “HAMMERS”!
LONDON
Wembley & Emirates
MIDLANDS
New Villa Park Birmingham & New Clifton Park Nottingham
NORTHEAST
St James Park Newcastle & Stadium of Light Sunderland
NORTHWEST
Old Trafford Manchester & New Anfield Liverpool
YORKSHIRE
New Elland Road Leeds & Sheffield with a new arena
SOUTHWEST
New Bristol stadium
SOUTH
New St Mary’s stadium Southampton
it would be amazing if they used madejski stadium, world cup in ur home town. not very often you can say that, eh’?
People lets just remember the rules on here.
Stadiums must have a minimum capacity of 40,000, all be update to 4 star ratings. Citys must have sufficent hotels, fan parks and transport.
Only ONE city in england may have 2 stadiums (Most likely London)
And just because theres 15 cities shortlisted does not eman there is going to be 15, 16 stadiums used more than likely be 12 stadiums which is the official requirement.
Aswell we dont want to see stadiums with dodgy looking developemts (Hillsboroughs away end, Pillars in other words no rough looking developments)
Also not all stadiums need capacity increases to 75,000-80,000 dont want empty seats like we had in some matches of previous competitions.
So now heres my WELL THOUGHT OUT list of stadiums.
Il be going with 12 stadiums, Starting North to South
St James’s Park, Newcastle 52,500
New Anfield, Liverpool 65,000 or Evertons New Ground 55,000
Old Trafford, Manchester 76,000
Redeveloped Elland Road, Leeds, 40,000-45,000
Redeveloped Brammall Lane, Sheffield 40,000
Forests New ground, Nottingham 50,000 (Though im sure 40,000 is anough)
Villa Park, Birmingham 45,000
New Bristol Stadium, Bristol 40,000
Emirates Stadium, London 60,000
Wembley Stadium, London 90,000
New Pompey Stadium, Portsmouth 40,000
Leave with one more stadium which i would like to see either at Sunderland or somehwere else down south but not near london maybe like 50-100 mile west of Southampton (But theres not really no big clubs down there).
Hope i get some constructive comments and not derby, southampton or wednesday claiming that there close rivals dont deserve a stadium (If you do back up your comments).
Mind the bad spelling typed it quite fast.
Wigan athletics stadium ( The DW ) Should go in the place of wembley the atmosphere is amazing and it’s the home of true football.
Britain
It should be a UK bid
We could use
Ibrox 52,000 (Possibley 70,000 by then)
Hampden 51,000
millenium stadium 75,000
why is Doncaster not in there
I Think fratton park should host the final, i mean its home of the best fans in football.
You know that there’s an actual bid being put together right now? You know that there are rules regarding the size of stadiums and the geographic spread of the games?
Basically, 15 cities have been invited to bid of which 12 will be selected and up to 16 stadia used
1. Birmingham
2. Bristol
3. Derby
4. Hull
5. Leeds
6. Leicester
7. Liverpool
8. London
9. Manchester
10. Milton Keynes
11. Newcastle Gateshead
12. Nottingham
13. Portsmouth
14. Sheffield
15. Sunderland
The cities likely to miss out, based on preliminary assessment, are Hull, Portsmouth and Milton Keynes, but a decent bid could see any of them oust either Sunderland, Derby or Bristol, but expect one of either Bristol or Portsmouth to be selected. All the other cities are shoe-ins (the possible exception being Liverpool)
It’s envisaged that 3 London venues will be used and, should Manchester’s group attract lesser games unlikely to fill the 76,000 seater Old Trafford, then the CoMS will host some of Manchester’s allocated games
Liverpool are shitting it because, without a new stadium or an improved Anfield, it will miss out. Because the club are looking to move, they may be reluctant to spend money on Anfield, in which case it will be down to Liverpool City Council to help fund the necessary improvements. But will the Scouse tax payers from the blue side of the city be happy with that?
I agree with Wembley, emirates, trafford, anfield. villa park etc . but BRISTOL …I MEAN COME ON HAVE STADIUMS IN THE MIDLANDS SO PEOPLE DONT HAVE TO TRAVEL THAT FAR TO SEE A WORLD CUP GAME IM TALKING ABOUT LEICESTER, FOREST, NOT MK AND HULL
What the? I thought our ones are world class well i now know we have rubish ones We need need to expan all the rubish ones to 40000+ other wise we will have to wait for another 4 years. FA SORT THE STADIA’S OUT!
I cannot believe some comments made about Sunderland, it is a fantastic city. It has a 2 mile sandy beach, award winning parks, riverside walks, marina, and friendly people. The fantastic stadium with its own metro station is only the icing on the cake. So before uninformed people make untrue comments they should visit Sunderland as I do on a regular basis.
Sunderland should not be considered as it is essentially a suburb of Newcastle – problem of two stadiums in one city (hence home games hosted by the two clubs are on alternate dates as in Mcr, Sheffield etc).
Sunderland is also the most backward town in Britain and while some third world people might feel at home there (or sympathy anyway), publicising this dreadful place would be a shocking advert for western ‘civilised’ society and the British government. Newcastle is marginally better but should win through as, neanderthals aside, there are some nice historic buildings and spaces and some decent nightlife in parts of the centre.
Milton Keynes (especially) and Bristol should also be discounted – they are not football towns. Nottingham is the obvious choice in the East Mids as the other two are a bit dull and no better than Coventry, which is also dreary. Hull is simply too remote and stadium is too small (after the Tigers go down it won’t be extended).
The best stadium in Britain (Millenium) should also be included – it’s only just over ther border after all FGS.
Personally, i think it should be well spread around england, so that means including the east, (i don’t include MK in this closer to the midlands than the east). So yes newcastle, manchester, london, birmingham, derby/nottingham/leicester, london x2, bristol, southampton/portsmouth, ipswich/Norwich, leeds, sheffield, MK. Giving the smaller footballing cities training bases. Places like Hull (yes i know they are premier league but its essentially a rugby league city really), york, doncaster, reading etc., an opportunity, plus the obvious other big football places like sunderland, coventry etc (as don’t think newcastle and sunderland should have the opportunity one or other really) and those others that miss out.
let smaaller towns host like mk [IT RULES] BECCAUSE THEY ALL HAVE GOOD STADIUMS
I think coventry should hold it for the small games coventry is being used for the rugby world cup so y cant it be used for fifa world cup
A lot of you guys are forgetting that East Midlands will have a host city. One of Derby, Nottingham or Leicester.
Now Nottingham’s ground has hit a stumbling block with the County Council it looks like it’s between Derby and Leicester
Just to let you know,to those saying Elland Road is old and rubbish. If Leeds is selected as a host city then Leeds have confirmed they will cexpand to around 50-60,000. The west stand will be demolished and rebuilt to mirror the east (17,000) and the north will be also demolished and rubuilt, to the height of west + east, which should hold an estimated 15,000. So there you have it, do the maths and you find that 17,000 + 17,000 + 15000 + 5000 makes a fairly large stadium (54,000. Cannot get plannin permision to expand/rebuild south stand as it is too close to the motorway, and that also solves the problem of the stadium being dated, with Bates in charge it will be packed with otels etc, and a perfect stadia for the world cup!
Hello again from Germany! Greetings from Berlin! We want you to host it! I do agree with “Matt” that East Midlands should have beside Birmingham a second place to host; and therefeore (sorry Derby & Leicester) I do prefer Nottingham. But “New Clifton Park” must be realised!
In other Case: Congratulations for playing the WorldCupQualifiers so good. Against Croatia & Ukraine, respect!!!Welcome to South Africa next year! Hope that we German’s survive killing game against Russia in October to meet YOU next summer in the Final on penalties (This was fun!!!)
Another case: What a great start in YOUR Premier League! Man City and Tottenham going to break through the BIG 4? Watched ManU vs ManC live, what a great match!!!
In Germany we have the two great derbies tonight: In the West the hate-match Dortmund vs. Schalke (80.550 in Borussia Park),in Hamburg the North-South-Duell between HSV – Bayern! I was at 1.FC Union yesterday, we sang all time and finally we won! (First place in second League2!
HSV HAMBURG, WEST HAM UNITED & 1.FC UNION BERLIN!!! EISERN!!!
And don`t forget: England for 2018!
The USA could host the World Cup at anytime. The following stadium have been built or renovated within the last ten years, except for the Rose Bowl and The New Meadowlands Stadium which is opening in 2010. Seating capacity averages around 75,000 per stadium. 1994 world cup was the highest attend world cup in history.
2018 or 2022
Cowboys Stadium – Dallas 100,000
Georgia Dome – Atlanta 71,000
M & T Stadium – Baltimore 71,000
Gillette Stadium – Boston 71,000
Soldier Field – Chicago 61,000
Cleveland Browns Stadium – Cleveland 72,000
INVESCO Field – Denver 76,000
Ford Field – Detroit 67,000
Reliant Stadium – Houston 71,000
Lucas Oil Stadium – Indianapolis 64,000
Rose Bowl – Los Angeles 93,000
New Meadowlands Stadium – New York 82,000
Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia 67,000
University of Phoenix Stadium – Phoenix 71,000
FedEx Field – Washington 91,000
Qwest Field – Seattle 67,000
my choice
upgrade to 40k
plymouth.pompey.mk.hull.reading.bristol.leicester
add leeds.newcastle.
with villa park.anfield 45k+
and old trafford.wembley.70k+
these should be the venues used
Remove Hull, Milton Keynes and Derby from the bid and England will be fine.
OK so FIFA require a minimum of 9 stadia at minimum 40K capacity with only one city permitted to provide 2 stadia. Add to that the fact the stadia must be spread out around the chosen country and provide sufficient infrastructure (hotels, transport links) and pack an adequate tourist punch to be a host city. Then consider that England’s bid is rightly not joint with any other, hence all stadia must be in England. The only possible exception is the Millenium stadium due to our national leagues being joint with Wales and Cardiff’s proximity to the South West where there are no other worthy stadia (yet). It’s an interesting conundrum.
However, this assumes England will win the bid. Clearly England’s bid will be helped by the global importance of its national league, the legendary passion of it’s fans, the fact it won’t have held a world cup for 52 years come 2018, England’s unrivalled heritage and the likelihood that FIFA will maximise it’s profit from staging the competition in England. BUT, England’s bid could well be hamstrung by the lack of government support and money (during the next 5 cash strapped years) and a subsequent lack of vision by relying on what will be by 2018, old fading stadia. You can already imagine how our bid will look pale and uninspiring compared to the grand plans Spain and Australia will no-doubt submit. In short FIFA will never hold a World Cup in England due to history alone.
So what to do ? If the FA is to succeed it will need a strong coherent vision backed by government support and a lot of money (like the Olympics). It’s vision will need to carefully select host cities (note I said cities not stadia) and the basis of what those cities can offer fans and the world cup itself and not purely on the history, quality and capacity of their stadia.
For this reason I would select the following host cities in regional groups to be inclusive and showcase England’s football & tourist heritage and national spread:
England’s bid suffers from having too many big teams and big stadia in London (by 2018 it will probably have 6 at 50k+). The limit on two stadia for one host city in a bid, means the elimination of some key stadia. On that basis I would have to choose:
LONDON GROUP – Wembley (90k) iconic and a true global home of football
LONDON GROUP – ideally using a retained Olympic Stadium (80k), or Twickenham (82k) if the RFU can be persuaded. Failing this use the Emirates (60k). Max capacity is needed here due to London’s size and the likely draw on tickets.
An alternative idea which might be acceptable to FIFA would be to reserve Wembley to the opening match, the semi and final and then use two of teh others(Emirates / Tottenham’s new home (planned at 56k)/ Chelsea’s new home (60k ?) / a retained Olympic stadium) for the LONDON group
NORTH WEST GROUP – Old Trafford (Main stand expanded to complete the bowl to c.96k) showcasing Manchester
NORTH WEST GROUP- New Anfield (plans modified to 79k as originally envisaged) showcasing Liverpool
NORTH EAST GROUP- St James Park (expanded to 60k as planned) showcasing Newcastle
NORTH EAST GROUP – Stadium Of Light (expanded to 64k as planned) – Sunderland fans won’t like this but the area is going to require pump priming if the North East is going to work as a group location in its own right. Probably saved by it’s proximity to Newcastle’s package and its pre-built capability to increase capacity.
MIDLANDS GROUP – new Nottingham ground (55k with government support), to showcase Nottingham. May have to require both teams in the city to share to get funding and ensure viability.
MIDLANDS GROUP – Villa Park (extended to 51k as planned) or a new City of Birmingham stadium (55k as planned), either showcasing Birmingham
WEST GROUP – Millenium Stadium (74k). FA will probably need dispensation from FIFA, but its capacity, quality and proximity to the west & south west makes it worthwhile.
WEST GROUP – Bristol (increase capacity of planned stadium to 45k), showcasing a vibrant emerging Bristol. Government funding will be required here and dare i say it a mixture of Bristol football & rugby use to get fudning and maximise its viability.
SOUTH COAST GROUP – St Mary’s (expanded to 40k+ with Govt support), showcasing Southampton
SOUTH COAST GROUP – new Fratton Park (expanded to 40k+), showcasing Portsmouth. This group is a difficult choice given the lack of capacity. Also a stadia in Brighton would have been preferrable, if not viable.
YORKSHIRE GROUP – a reconstructed Elland Road (c.50k capacity with government support), to showcase Leeds
YORKSHIRE GROUP – a reconstructed Hillsborough or a new stadium in Sheffield (c.50k capacity with government support), the latter may well require co-ownership by the city’s teams dare i say it. Sheffield is ripe for a new stadium, although the city will need pump priming as well.
That leaves one final grouping and there are a few candidates all of which would require new or expanded stadiums at 40k plus. I would ideally choose an EAST group consisting of Norwich & Ipswich given their location and the attraction of an East Anglia package – but both would need considerable investment to get them to a 40k minimum.
Alternatively you could pair Villa Park/City of Birmingham with Coventry or Molineux expanded to 40k to form a WEST MIDLANDS GROUP and then match Nottingham with either Pride Park in Derby or the Walkers stadium in Leicester expanded to 40k to form an EAST MIDLANDS GROUP. All of these have plans to expand but would most likely require government money to fund it.
The key here is for government and club owners to back the FA’s vision with money to fund the necessary expansions and new stadia. It’s also important that they deliver stadia with real identities rather than the identikit stadiums many new ones are.
Due to the congested nature of the UK transport networks, I have chosen regional groupings rather than the hotch potch that existed at France 98 and Germany 06, with one stadium for each group providing a venue for last 16’s with the bigger venues hosting the latter rounds.
I’d be interested in peoples comments.
I think the stadiums should be in groups.
Group A: London: Wembley, Stamford Bridge, Emirates
Group B: North West: Anfield, Old Trafford, Eastlands
Group C: North East: St James’ Park, Stadium of Light
Group D: Midlands: Villa Park, St Andrews, Ricoh Arena
Group E: South: St Mary’s, Fratton Park
Group F: Yorkshire: Bramall Lane, Hillsborough, KC Stadium.
The World Cup will then be held in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Coventry, Southampton, Portsmouth, Sheffield and Hull
Last 16: Stamford Bridge, Eastlands, Stadium of Light, Villa Park, St Andrews, Ricoh Arena, St Mary’s, Fratton Park, Bramall Lane and Hillsborough
Last 8: KC Stadium, Emirates, St James’ Park, Stamford Bridge
Semi – Finals: Old Trafford, Emirates, Anfield, Wembley
3rd Place Play Off: Old Trafford
Final: Wembley.
I think that Stamford Bridge, Anfield, Old Trafford, Emirates, Villa Park, St James’ park should be 80,000 seaters. Wembley a 130,000 seater and all the other stadiums 55,000 seaters
Training areas should be used at:
Riverside (MIDDLESBOROUGH)(for North East)
White Hart Lane (TOTTENHAM) (for London)
Portman Road (IPSWICH) (for East Midlands)
Home Park (PLYMOUTH) (for South and South West)
Cardiff City Stadium (CARDIFF) (for West Midlands)
Brittania Stadium (STOKE) (for West Midlands)
DW Stadium (WIGAN (for North West)
Elland Road (LEEDS) (for Yorkshire)
I don’t know where people keep getting this 96,000 Old Trafford from, Old Trafford has now reached its limit, this is widely acknowledge as fact.
To expand the current home of Manchester United the club would have to build on top of the west stand in the same way they have on the other three sides of the ground.
Behind the west stand is a railway line, so railtrack would have to approve United building over the track. This is highly unlikely, and even if they did allow it, they would want a share of the gate receipts for that stand for years to come.
Crazy. wouldn’t happen ?
Ask Birmingham City supporters what railtrack demanded of there future gate takings, when they asked if they could build over the railway line at the rear of their St Andrews railway stand.
Glasgow Rangers have also faced the same problems.
Plus, even if United were to get approval and agree terms with the railways, any new stand would then block out the light from the houses on the other side of the track, and these houses are listed buildings, and can never be demolished.
Its a none starter, Manchester should bring the City Of Manchester Stadium up to 80,000 by taking the top level of the seating at the halfway line all the way around the ground. The stadium, it’s surroundings and transportation were built for an international event.
This is in response to Paul
I think this is genrally a good idea and with a fewq particular tweakings, this idea would work wonder imho. This is particualry good for logistics and the fact that it would be easier to have training bases (1 region, 4 training bases,4 teams).
But, in consideration for local policing and transportation (Newcastle and Sunderland spring to mind), this could not be viable.
However, you could pair up different regions and do it that way. For example, instead of Newcastle/Sunderland and Sheffield/Leeds, you could have Newcastle/Sheffield and Leeds/Sunderland on different sids of the draw. This could also work for North West/East Midlands, West Midlands/South West and London/South.
This could get by FIFA rules and they were considering this for South Africa 2010.
All in all, good idea
Paul,
They did this in EURO 96 and the grounds were half empty.
Also, would you have th seed playing in the same ground x3 or what?
At present we do not have enough stadiums with a capacity of 40,000+
The Definate Venues I’d say are as follows:
Wembley Stadium
Old Trafford (Possibly be extended further by 2018)
Emirates
St James Park (It might be called The McDonalds Stadium by then!)
The City of Manchester Stadium (Might be extended by then – loads of money!)
Stadium of Light
Anfield (Or wherever Liverpool are playing by then!)
Villa Park
Stamford Bridge
Future Stadiums:
New White Hart Lane
New Liverpool/Everton…erm I dont mean they should share!
Any I have missed?
No chance:
Anywhere in Scotland & Wales…..HELLO….ITS ENGLAND 2018!!!!
Anyway…..with people like Blatta & Platini having a say….we have prob no chance of hosting 2018!
Greetings from Berlin again! This is to PAUL: One of the best comments I read in the past. Go on like this!
Also special Greetings to Michael Lee, it’s been a year we comment at first time, isn’t it? ENGLAND FOR 2018! Bye!
The drawing for first round groups at WC2010 in South Africa coming up! Nice to see England being placed as one head of the groups instead of France, which only defeated Ireland by the “Hand of Henry”. Wish the “Tricolore” will have a “Hammer-Group” with Brazil, Ghana/Nigeria or Ivory Coast and Mexico or U.S.A.for instance! For England I wish the same luck as we Germans traditionally had in the past. (We Germans speak about: “Das deutsche Losglück!”)Glad to see you next year in South Africa, hopefully in the Final! Greetings to all of you “Three Lions” from Berlin, and England for 2018!
Southampton’s St. mays stadium
got good ground facilities and a brilliant standard training ground and a good fan base in the city and lets face it Portsmouth will never get a new stadium because their in finical trouble and it shouldn’t be in scotland or wales its ENGLAND 2018 not UK 2018
Should come to Plymouth. Needs to be spread across the country. Plymouth is a beautiful city and will be good for the bid. There is no way newcastle and sunderland should get it. So Newcastle has to be the North east candidate.
carrow road norwich?
i dont know why you are all fighting over what stadiums to use when australia will get the 2018 wc anyway, gives you an extra 4 years to get it right, we already have the infrastructure
cuz i’m from greece i know all the stadiums are wonderful for a world cup
but i wanted the opening match and the final or one of them to be played at New Anfield
Thank you
Sorry “aussie”, but FIFA will give WorldCup 2018 to Europe! President Sepp Blatter gave a comment about it last days. Australia, U.S.A., Corea, Indonesia and Qatar – which are trying to be host,will have no chance until 2022! The choice will be between Spain/Portugal (together), Netherlands/Belgium (together), Russia and England!
France and Italy will not candidate, because both of them try to be host of European Championship in 2016!… England for WC 2018!!! Greetings from Berlin!
I think that this thread should move away from the selection of stadia and move more into potential organisation. For intsance…
Should we copy the Germany 2006 model of 12 stadia
Should we regionalise the group stages (8 GROUPS- 2VENUES EACH)
Should we give teams a home base (will stop fans from far away spending too much)
Should we allocate teams to training bases
Should we use 10,12,14 or 16 venues… you get my jist
Villa Park should host the semi cause its in the middle of england.
PPl,
We all know that WC 2018 is coming home to England.
St Marys is a AMAZING stadium and it is well worth being up there. Just a slight problem is that St Marys holds 32,000 people not 30,000.
Like someone said earlier in 2yrs time we are hosting London 2012. This will be amazing. We will prove to the world we can hold amazing events and host them well.
WE WILL GET WC 2018.
Hello “Hammer ML”.
Gretings from Berlin!
Well, I do think the idea of 12 stadia is right! Eleven towns and having London 2! But regionalizing group stages is no good! England should have host all matches throughout the whole country – deciding by the Draw of the 8 world-cup-groups! Therefore home-bases undone!
But how I wrote on my tournement-plan winner of the group can stay at Eight-Final in the same stadium like at last group-match!
For training bases FA should choose towns, that have an old tradition in England’s football history, not being chosen to host World-Cup-Matches indeed.
For ever Hamburger SV, and as the half of Berlin says: Never forget… EISERN UNION!
regionalising group stages is the best way. Imagine you are a fan of say Ghana, Chile, Paraguay, Honduras etc… you are aleady poor, then you are being asked to travel (in an expensive country) from Newcastle to London to Plymouth, with massive FIFA ticket prices, in a land with an inefficent transport system. FIFA should make the world cup more fan friendily
Hi ML. This is very good reason to regionalize the WorldCup! There will be so many fans who cannot enjoy all the matches of their team! (Me included)! After all: the most important thing is that ENGLAND is the HOST! We celebrated 2006 with you, now let us have an english-german Party at “THE ISLAND”!
thing is, to work out a match schedule to regioanlise world cup, you would need to take in policing considerations (can’t have a group in Newcastle/Sunderland for instance) and other stuff. You could have a group of say, Newcastle/Sheffield and Sunderland/Leeds which I think could work well, and it would give local communties a chance to really get to knwo the players, cultures and have the chance to meet them. And it has been proven people spend more in an area, wheer they don’t have to worry about transport across the land.
Downside, however, is a big venue could get lumbered with a crap group (like Group F in SA) and the fact that, as england would be based at wembley, there would be a mass scramble for tickets and be unfair on the north
Well done, nice side!
But to realize your idea, there must be 16 stadia and not that 12, we’ve always talked about! But if three stadia share 2 groups, your idea could work. (World Cup USA’94 gone like this).
After all: all the best to WEST HAM! Greetings from a H.S.V.-Fan living in Berlin, and never forget: Eisern Union!
The Valley in London