2018 tournament may be restricted to Europe
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.
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I’m sure there is also a movement to hold it outside of Europe as well. This would also make it easier on FIFA to make their final decision. London has 2012. There are serious doubts England has what it takes to pull even that one off. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. One diasater per century should suffice.
Sepp Blatter is becoming very tedious in the way he insists that FIFA have absolute control of everything until the last possible moment, so that they can change their mind more easily. Some might call it diplomatic. I call it power obsessed.
It’s perfectly obvious that the 2018 tournament will be hosted by a European Country. Sepp Blatter should announce it immediately and save everyone, particularly the non European bidders, time and money.
Reasons it will be held in Europe:
1. 2010 is in South Africa and 2014 is in Brazil.
2. Half the bids for 2018 and 2022 are European, so it makes sense (as he has stated in the article above) to split the work load.
3. It’s the most financially viable option when you consider every minute detail including, attendances, travel for fans and time difference for TV broadcasts.
In response to an earlier comment:
It is unlikely that there will be amovement to host it outside of Europe, since that movement was already successful in seeing 2014 be hosted by Brazil. Let’s not forget that 2014 is the first time EVER that the World Cup will be hosted outside of Europe in back to back tournaments.
The Olympics of 2012 are being hosted by London. The 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid is being made by England. England is not London. Also, the Olympics are a far bigger project to manage than a football tournament, when, England have everything needed already to host a successful bid. It’s no secret that FIFA had England as a contingency plan should South Africa not deliver their tournament in time.