FIFA may restrict World Cup 2018 bids to Europe

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said that there is talk of restricting the World Cup 2018 bids to European countries. As of now, Russia and England have inidividually applied to host the 2018 and/or the 2022 World Cup. On the other hand, Spain and Portugal and Netherlands and Belgium have made joint bids for one or both of these tournaments. Japan, United States and Australia have also placed bids for the 2018 and/or 2022 World Cup and Qatar, South Korea and Indonesia would like to stage the matches in 2022.

Blatter said that he had discussed the idea with UEFA president Michel Platini. "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. It would also possibly make the work of the different organisations applying for the World Cup easier." Blatterhad earlier met Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Madrid.

FIFA needs the bid documentation to be submitted by the end of May and after examining them in June a team of experts will make the site visits to assess the infrastructure capabilities of the bidding countries. The decision of who will host the two World Cups will announced in December in Zurich.

Source: euFootball.BIZ