The Benelux countries of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg will be jointly putting together a bid to host the World Cup finals of 2018.

The bid is competiton for England between the crucial european votes, but it is likely that the UEFA countries will decide to back just one European bid rather than splitting their votes. The Dutch & Belgians have a recent history of working together on a successful tournament after hosting the European Championships in 2000.

Benelux to bid for 2018

The plan actually is for just Holland & Belgain to host games and Luxembourg to just host a FIFA congress, which would mean that Luxembourg would not qualify for the tournament automatically as hosts.

Talking about how countries had already started to put together bid packages and express an interest in the finals, FIFA President Sepp Blatter said:

“It says everything about the popularity of football and the World Cup that we already have concrete proposals.”

Expect further interest in hosting the tournament to come from Russia & Spain in Europe, as well as the United States, Australia, Mexico, and China from around the world.