Fifa confirm World Cup bids

March 18, 2009

11 candidates to host the 2018 and 2022 have been confirmed by Fifa as the deadline for bids passed on Monday. 9 of the bidding countries would be willing to host ether tournament where as 2 are only bidding for the 2022.

The countries applying for both to double their chances of getting to host the tournament were England, Russia, Australia, the USA, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia and joint bids from Portugal-Spain and Netherlands-Belgium.

Qatar and South Korea have applied to host the 2022 tournament only.

All the countries mentioned above had already announced their intentions to bid but this list was only confirmed after receipt of all the registration forms.

The next stage for the applicants is to submit their bidding agreements by 11 December, with Fifa’s 24-man executive committee choosing the winning candidates in December 2010.

“We are very pleased about the fantastic level of interest in our flagship competition, with all initial bidders confirming their candidature,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

“The diversity and quality of the contenders will make this a very interesting selection process.”

Of the stand-alone candidates for either tournament, England (1966), Mexico (1970 and 1986) and the USA (1994) have previously hosted a World Cup on their own.

Japan jointly hosted the 2002 World Cup with South Korea, who are candidates for 2022, and Spain, who have submitted a joint application with Portugal, staged the tournament in 1982.

The 2010 World Cup takes place in South Africa, with Brazil hosting the tournament in 2014.

Under Fifa’s rotation rule, that prevents African or South American countries bidding for the next tournaments.

Successful hosts must meet certain conditions if they are to win the right to stage the World Cup and provide at least 12 stadiums with minimum capacities of 40,000. The final must be held in a stadium with a capacity of at least 80,000.

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