Is Football Coming Home? - 05/11/2007

England could play host to the World Cup in 2018 after Fifa abandoned its policy of rotating the staging of the finals through its six confederations. Without this rule change England would have had to wait until the 2030 tournament before bidding. Gordon Brown, sensing a chance to offset recent unpopularity, quickly threw his weight behind a FA bid, saying 'it would crown the greatest decade ever for British sport.' Despite the prime minister's enthusiasm for 'Britishness', the FA do not appear to have considered a joint bid with the Welsh and Scottish associations, even though that would make available the Millennium stadium in Cardiff and Hampden Park in Glasgow. The FA envisages constructing stadiums in the West Country (perhaps in Bristol) and on the South Coast, possibly in partnership with Portsmouth. The FA is aware that the best grounds in England are concentrated in three main areas - London, the North West and North East - and would hope to use the World Cup to upgrade facilities in the Midlands and Yorkshire, perhaps at Villa Park and Hillsborough. The mothballed centre of excellence project at Burton on Trent could even be revived.

There are bad memories of the doomed attempt to host the 2006 World Cup which cost £10m and ended in humiliation. This time the FA is more confident, believing that it is better connected politically. Likely competitors are Australia, Russia, China and either Mexico or the United States. The key to success would be achieving preferred status among the European nations which would mean seeing off a joint bid from Belgium and the Netherlands. Significantly, the campaign has earned the backing of the powerful German lobby headed by Franz Beckenbauer. The news of the rule change came in a good week for the FA with the signing of an international broadcast agreement for 2008-12 worth £150m, an increase of 275 per cent on the previous deal. Added to rights for England and FA Cup matches domestically, it takes the total worth of the FA's broadcast package to £600m.