England considers bid for 2018 World Cup (Reuters) Updated: 2005-11-16 10:27
LONDON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The British government has held preliminary talks
with the English Football Association about a possible bid for the 2018 World
Cup finals.
A government spokesman said on Tuesday that exploratory discussions with the
FA had taken place and these talks "may go beyond preliminary discussions at
some stage".
"We want to look at the chances of winning," Sports Minister Tessa Jowell
told Sky Sports News on Tuesday.
"What it would cost, what the legacy would be in exactly the same way that we
looked at bidding for the Olympic Games and bringing the Games to London in
2012.
"There were many people who thought we couldn't do that, we shouldn't do
that. We went ahead, we won so I think things look set very fair for a World Cup
bid but no decision, no final decision, has yet been taken by the FA."
With the 2006 finals being held in Germany, the 2010 World Cup in South
Africa and the 2014 finals likely to be staged in Brazil, the 2018 competition
represents the next available opportunity for a European country to bid for the
event, although it is not yet certain to come to Europe.
FIFA, world soccer's ruling body, uses a continental rotation system for the
finals which are not due to return to Europe until 2018 at the earliest.
However, Oceania are also considering a bid to stage the finals in 2018.
That situation is complicated by Australia moving from the Oceania
confederation to Asia this year and an Oceania World Cup without Australia would
be an unrealistic option.
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