Fifa President Sepp Blatter has revealed that a deal is being discussed where only European nations will be able to bid for the 2018 World Cup.

If the agreement is implemented, it will mean that only England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Holland will be able to bid for the tournament in 2018. Other bidders such as USA, Australia and Japan will have to focus their attention solely on the 2022 World Cup if Blatter’s proposal is approved.

Blatter said: “There is a movement at the moment among the various candidates that in the end it would be a good solution if the candidates for 2018 would only be those from Europe. It’s not been finally decided but it’s the idea, also to make the work of FIFA easier and especially that of the executive committee.”

Despite rumours of Blatter disapproving joint bids, the FIFA chief stated that he believed Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherland could both be potential worthy hosts.

He said: “History has shown that at the European Championships of 2000 (Belgium-Netherlands) and 2008 (Austria-Switzerland) that joint-organization can be a great success.”

FIFA need bid documentation from each candidate by the end of May and will study them in June. They will then send out groups of specialists to visit candidate nations and assess their ability to stage the event successfully. A final decision will then be reached in December 2010.