Benelux countries World Cup 2018 bid
There are three possible bids coming from Europe. These are England (the most powerful), Russia and the Benelux countries (the least powerful). Benelux is an abbreviation of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. A combined bid between these countries is being considered. Organisers behind this likely bid are saying that rotating this competition between the large countries will remove the fun from the competition. They are hoping to have the backing of the smaller football countries that believe that the World Cup should also be staged by relatively small countries.
Luxembourg, the smallest of the three countries, is ranked 149th in the FIFA rankings. It is unlikely to be involved much in the bid, and will not even host a game, due to the lack of suitable stadiums. Therefore, we won’t have Luxembourg qualifying automatically for the World Cup and conceding record goals against the big sides. On the other hand, Holland and Belgium will be very pleased to avoid qualification and go straight to the finals. One problem which Holland faces is the low capacity of stadiums, with only two with a capacity over 40000. Belgium is even weaker in this aspect with practically no modern stadiums having over 40 thousand seats.
The geographical setting would be excellent, with the Benelux countries being at the heart of Europe, making it easy for Europeans to travel to watch the World Cup. The Benelux countries hosted the European Championships in 2000. However, FIFA has given indications that it is against another joint bid to host the World Cup, as the costs would be too high. UEFA is likely to back just one bid, and to say the truth, it is very improbable that it would choose to back the Benelux bid over the more attractive English and Russian bids.
Bid Information
March 17, 2008 @ 6:15 pm
Davous said:
Saying this is the least powerful bid, is really underestimating the potential in here. Because both Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are part of 1 political union (Benelux) the will act like 1 organizing comity. This would directly counter all criticism relating to problems with more then 1 organization. Also, do not forget the success of Euro 2000 at the time.
Moreover, in Rotterdam (Feyenoord), Amsterdam (AFC Ajax) and Eindhoven (PSV), plans have been made to create or expand existing stadiums (With Rotterdam and Amsterdam planning around 70′000 capacity at least). In Belgium cities as Antwerp, Brugge & Liege also have plans involving creating World Championship suitable stadiums.
Meeting the requirements with also giving smaller countries a chance of organizing a massive tournament, the fact that the Netherlands and Belgium are regular participants at European and World Championships and that the infrastructure is suitable for this event. Also stating that there are plans to create the necessary large stadiums, I must say that I really believe in the odds of these countries taking price.
P.S. According to Yahoo News, Belgium & Netherlands have officially declared themselves as candidate. The first official candidate as of the 17th of February.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20080217/ca_pr_on_ru_so/soc_wcup2018_2
March 27, 2008 @ 4:20 am
JG said:
Just remenber 2000. The best euro cup ever. I support Netherlands or the Benelux to 2018.
May 25, 2008 @ 8:28 am
ronnie said:
the bid of the Netherlands is gonna suprise you i really think they have a good chance.Just look back at euro 2000, one of the best tournaments since years.
But it’s a hard race to get the worldcup 2018.
More about the dutch bid also on http://www.wkvoetbal2018.com
August 1, 2008 @ 9:24 am
kees dijk said:
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
August 10, 2008 @ 9:13 am
dave from the hague said:
The Benelux bid is a strong one. Stadia and infrastructure is just as good as in England and the welcome will be just as warm. The biggest issue I see is the dual-bid aspect which could alienate Uefa countries as it would mean less WC qualification slots for others. So I suspect this, and the belief that England will be most likely to win it for Europe will scupper the Dutch bid by not winning uefa support. Don’t underestimate English arrogance ruining their chances though - just look at this website.
August 26, 2008 @ 11:55 am
Zachary said:
I like the looks of all three World Cup bids in Europe (althoguh of course I’d be thrilled to have England take it up).
It seems very likely [in common sense] that the 2018 Cup will be a European one, and all three candidates have very strong bids to put forward to the UEFA.
The dual-bid of course will be the major thorn in the BeNeLux bid, seeing as FIFA doesn’t want another dual World Cup. But either way, the cup will be a great one.
(And heck, if England misses out on this one, no doubt will poke at the next one too)