17 Mar 2009Fifa confirms World Cup bidders

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance

Fifa has revealed today (March 17th) that there a total of 11 nations bidding for the right to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

Nine countries have applied for both tournaments, namely England, Russia, Australia, the US, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia and joint bids from Holland and Belgium, and Portugal and Spain.

With yesterday's deadline for official registration forms now passed, football's world governing body also confirmed that Qatar and South Korea have expressed their interest in the 2022 competition alone.

Commenting on the news, Fifa president Sepp Blatter said: "We are very pleased about the fantastic level of interest in our flagship competition, with all initial bidders confirming their candidature."

Blatter added that the "diversity and quality" of the nations involved should ensure that the selection process should be "very interesting".

Among the countries to have staged a World Cup previously are England (1966), Mexico (1970 and 1986), Spain (1982), the US (1994) and South Korea (2002, with Japan).

Under Fifa rules, successful hosts must be able to provide at least 12 stadia with minimum capacities of 40,000.

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