Potential host nation Japan is considering withdrawing from the race to host the 2018 World Cup in order to fully concentrate on their bid for the 2022 tournament.

Like other sole 2022 bidders South Korea and Qatar, Japan believe that the 2018 World Cup will be awarded to a country in Europe or else the tournament will be absence from the continent for three straight turns which has never happened before.

Following Tokyo’s failure to land the 2016 Olympics, the bid for 2018 is now severely weakened and only considered an extreme outside chance of success.

England, Spain/Portugal, Russia and Holland/Belgium are the European bidders whilst USA and Australia are also thought to have a fairly good chance of winning the rights to the tournament.