No world cup rotation policy

This is good news! England should be able to put out a strong bid to get the World Cup.

 

We'll host it. About time tbh.

 

Sinner we should get it and we will get it (in 2018). We invented the bleedin game, 52 years is a joke imao.

 

as far as i'm aware it's brazil's to lose. however, typically of brazilians they're dragging their heels in terms of stadium development, travel infrastructure etc.. the usual bug bears for a country that needs to get up to scratch for the biggest tournament in the world.

they believe it cannot be taken from them and seem oblivious to the fact that if they don't get their asses in gear then it could be given to another country. it would be at short notice so countries that are already well developed and have all the stadia and infrastructure in place would go on a shortlist to get it in the unlikely event brazil feck it up.

england, spain, france, usa and germany would all be in the reckoning i'd imagine.

 

The main rivals will probably be Russia and China. I can't see anyone else getting it for a second or third time before England again.

We really should be hosting 2014 however, to acknowledge the 150th anniversary of the founding of the game.

 

Blatter has virtually come out and endorsed an England bid for 2018. The FIFA boss said

"I'm supporting all the bidders, but the England bid is, I have to say, a very pleasant bid because it is not today they have said they start to be interested in the World Cup 2018, it's several years ago, especially when they lost against Germany [for the 2006 tournament].

"England is the motherland of football, they have the best professional league."


Blatter, 71, has even said he would like to still be in office should England win the rights to stage the tournament in 11 years' time.


"I would like to see the World Cup to be played in England as long as I'm still alive and perhaps still president of Fifa."


"I don't know if I'm President of Fifa in 2018, but I think England is a good candidate, but there will be some very good contenders and we're not yet definite of that but I'm sure our executive committee will follow my proposals."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/10/29/ufnfifa129.xml


Basically Blatter wants England to get it and he is saying as much publicly.

 

The main rival will be the US, imo, especially as had rotation continued it would have been CONCACAF's "turn".

 

Didn't Mexico have it in 86 and the USA in 94? If so CONCACAF can go screw itself.

 

All UEFA will back an English bid for 2018. It is time for it to come back to England - the 2018 Final should be played in the greatest football stadium in the World. The tournament should be played in such iconic grounds as Old Trafford and Villa Park and amazing new stadia like Ashburton Grove and New Anfield and Wembley Stadium.

I think it will happen. It is the right thing for football.

 

IMO this new statement put out by FIFA translates to this:

We will no longer hold WCs/major tournaments in dodgy places where you can get gunned down in broad daylight (IE South America/Africa) and where the timezones bizarre (Japan, Asia).

USA in 2014
England in 2018
Australia in 2022???

 

Sepptic is the worst kind of politician, and will say anything to curry favor... I suspect an English reporter asked whatever question he was answering and knew where his answer would be printed. Anyways, you cut out this silly statement:

A more telling quote by Blatter that I heard on five live sport today (I'm paraphrasing) was that England should make sure they have pretty strong support from the rest of UEFA. This is what stopped their 2006 bid cold in its tracks, and there will probably be two other European bids this time...

The US hosted the best attended WC ever despite it being a 24 team tournament, and has the most extensive stadium infrastructure in the World. Also, Jack Warner's corrupt ass can certainly deliver some votes, and he would be keen to just that, as a CONCACAF world cup would mean more cash for him. The US are your biggest competition unless some of the other countries make a lot of noise.

 

I cut out that quote because it is stupid. England have a better national team than South Africa, Japan, South Korea, USA, Australia, China. If having a good national team was important to the process then this helps England compared to our host rivals.

There will not be any other serious bids from within UEFA. England has stadia that hold more significance in world football than the US. Any neutral player would prefer to play at Wembley, or the homes of historical clubs like Liverpool, Man U, Arsenal, Villa etc than a stadium famous for NFL matches. That's not to slight the US stadia which are excellent but they lack the mystique of the English football stadia. Plus the fact that the US hosted in 94 will be held against them hosting again so soon. The host nations are shared around quite a bit before returning to previous hosts.

The rotation system was the major obstacle to a successful English bid in 2018 and this has now been removed. I have nothing against a US bid but I doubt a 2018 US bid could succeed against an English bid. You'd have a much better chance in 2022 when England and Europe would be out of contention (if England does succeed in 2018). FIFA would not vote to scrap a system giving the 2018 WC to CONCACAF and then award the 2018 WC to CONCACAF. Blatter and Beckenbauer have both endorsed an English 2018 bid and their opinions are influential in footballing administrative circles. Of course I am English, in England, so my opinion may be biased but I believe I have looked at the situation with some measure of objective analysis.

 

What stopped England's bid for 2006 was that all of UEFA (including England) had previously informally agreed to back England for Euro96 and Germany for WC 2006. Such backing was agreed in advance by the UEFA power-brokers. England this time around hold similar backing from UEFA. UEFA have pretty much decided that it is time for England and any formal bids from Spain, BeNeLux, Greece and Russia will fail as they have no support from the rest of UEFA. I doubt any other country from UEFA will even put in a formal bid. They might propose an interest but realise that without widespread support from UEFA it is not worth even wasting money on a formal bid.

 

I basically agree with what you've said, apart from your putting any stock into Blatter's endorsement of the English bid.

Also, worth noting that the NFL stadia aren't ideal for soccer, despite all of the newer ones being designed to host international matches. The sightlines are poor from many of the better seats due to the curvature in the architecture and the seats starting from an elevated level. I had 7th row tickets to US v Brazil at Soldier Field a few weeks ago but couldn't see the near corners. That being said, don't think that Sepp Blatter and his retinue are in awe of any English mystique. He and his cohorts only care about what's best for them.

Anyways, I would agree that England are favorites at this point. Personally, I don't really care that much whether it's the US or England in 2018 except for me being pessimistic about actually being able to get tickets for an England WC. I expect it will be much tougher than it was for Germany despite what will be bigger stadia. Hopefully not. Good luck to you though.

 

CONCACAF and AFC will conspire to make sure that rotation holds whether FIFA officially supports it or not. 2018 will be the US and 2022 will be Australia. Warner and bin Hammam have a combined 81 national federations behind them and can rally total support for their cause.

 

IMO, it will be this...

USA - 2010
Brazil - 2014
England - 2018
China - 2022

I'm of course sort of kidding about the first part but in all honesty, I work with a bunch of South Africans and they all have their doubts... Anyhoo.. CONMEBOL should get 2014 as they haven't had a world cup since 1978 and Brazil, the most footballing affluent nation, hasn't hosted the WC since 1950. Besides, you got the Euros in 96 + the olympics coming your way in a couple of years time .... but England in 2018 would be great! It's the perfect place for it, after Brazil in 2014 - two traditional footballing loving nations hosting world cups one after the other - can't wait!

 

The decision is made by 24 members of the FIFA Executive Committee and not the national federations. Each member makes a vote for one host. The candidate with the most votes wins. Blatter and Beckenbauer have already virtually said they will vote for England. There are 7 other members from UEFA including one from England. Platini has also said that he will vote to bring the tournament back to Europe. CONCACAF has 3 members including Warner. AFC have 4 members but will likely vote for an Australia bid.

The current Executive Committee members can be seen here

http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/federation/bodies/exco.html

I am not sure how much the membership of the committee will change in the next few years, possible not at all unless members die or resign or are fired. I believe they have elections the year after each World Cup so the next election will be in 2011 and that committee will be the one to decide the hosts for 2018. The demographics of the current committee seems to favour an English bid over any other before factoring in anything else.

 

I certainly don't think FIFA cares about whether a top team/league hosts the World Cup.

Its funny people aren't really pushing through FIFA's rationale for opening up the bidding process. Really, its quite simple: Blatter and co. found themselves unable to extract significant bribes during the two most recent bidding cycles as 2010 was an African cycle and 2014 was unopposed by Brazil.

2018 figures to be a corrupt man's dream with the United States, England, Russia, and China all in the fold. No wonder why Blatter doesn't want to retire until after that cycle, he'll be even richer then he is now.

 

I've just heard that Brazil have been told they must rebuild or build new stadiums for all their proposed venues for 2014. They have a budget of £550 million to do 10 venues. To rebuild or build 10 stadiums is a lot of money and I am not sure if that budget is sufficient even in Brazil.