In the midst of all the news emerging from the FFA’s annual general meeting, the reiteration from Frank Lowy of Australia’s determination to stage the 2018 bid comes at a time when European powers are lining up to bring the World Cup back to the sports heartland after what will be a twelve year absence.
If Australia wants the 2018 World Cup, it will take some serious political manoeuvrings to make it happen.
FIFA President Sepp Blatter was quoted in May as saying Australia should focus its efforts on 2022 instead. With the next two World Cups in the Southern Hemisphere (South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014), Blatter hinted that the World Cup might have to return to the Northern Hemisphere in 2018.
Never before has Europe been overlooked for two World Cups in a row, let alone three.
UEFA is determined to stage the 2018 World Cup and there is no lack of options emerging.
England is the favourite, having missed out on the 2006 bid.
With the Olympics in 2012 and world-class stadiums littered around the country, it is a genuine contender to stage the tournament, unless the Olympics bankrupt the country!
English football has certainly come a long way from the dark old days of hooliganism and Hillsborough. The World Cup would be the confirmation of the cleansing in the English game.
Spain has also thrown its hat in the ring, with a joint bid with neighbours Portugal.
Spain last held the World Cup in 1982. The only obvious impediment is the amount of racism that still blights the Spanish game.
With regard to stadiums, Spain and England could stage a World Cup next week.
Other European options are Belgium and the Netherlands and also Russia.
Even if Europe doesn’t work out, Blatter could avoid a third straight Southern Hemisphere World Cup with the dark horse of the 2018 bid, the United States.
The FFA certainly has a fight on its hands.
Call me pessimistic but there is an immense amount of work to do for the FFA with stadiums and questions regarding how the other codes will accommodate the tournament into their own calendar.
We have the potential to stage the World Cup one day and it would be a great World Cup, a momentous occasion that would rank up there with the Sydney Olympics, if not higher given how symbolic it would be of football’s journey in this country.
But with Europe appearing to be the favoured option for 2018, perhaps the FFA should switch its focus to 2022.
It seems difficult to imagine Europe going without a World Cup for sixteen years and you wonder how the FFA, even with the support of the AFC, could overcome the political power of UEFA, its European interests and the wishes of President Blatter.
Those extra years will give the FFA time to rally governments across the states for the stadiums we need and other confederations worldwide for the political pull to determine just how the World Cup would be accommodated and avoid a direct confrontation with Europe.
Better to be one of the favourites for 2022 than just one of the contenders for 2018.
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Midfielder said | December 2nd 2008 @ 3:15am | Report comment
Agree
Michael C said | December 2nd 2008 @ 5:26am | Report comment
Hmm, funny that – - some of us have been labelled ‘anti Australian’ for suggesting that 2018 back in Europe is virtually a ‘given’.
The new pseudo rotation system dictates that the same confed can’t host twice within a 12 year period, so, Europe wants to get established asap on their new rotating 12 yearly cycle……2018, 2030, 2042…….
We know the NH vs SH issue too, that after Sth Af, and Brazil – that the NH will need the WC back in their ‘back yard’.
Issues about splitting the 2018/2022 bidding process or not, and all the other stuff – fair enough. But for 2018 – - that’s the domain of ‘dreamers’ (KB!!).
Scott B said | December 2nd 2008 @ 6:30am | Report comment
2018 will be england or spain,
this will put us up against probably USA, Mexico, China, Qatar perhaps an Egypt.
I do hope that we dont however have a situation where we had a joint bid with NZ (if they joined the AFC soon)
True Tah said | December 2nd 2008 @ 7:32am | Report comment
Scott,
unless FFA builds a heap of stadiums around Australia, a joint bid with NZ is the only way we could meet the criteria for a world cup (12 stadiums with minimum capacity 40,000, with no more than 2 in one city).
Whats wrong with a joint Australia-NZ bid, Japan-Korea did a good job, and there is more in common between Aust-NZ than these countries than say Japan-Korea, Belgium-Netherlands and Spain-Portugal?
Scott B said | December 2nd 2008 @ 7:48am | Report comment
is it 12, i thought it was 10,
the ffa would help, but so would state and federal government, along with the afc and fifa.
the amount of money brought into australia would surpass the stadium costs.
Korea japan arent very close, but your other references are.
f”k helping nz, i would rather games be played in coff harbour, geelong or the sunshine coast than auckland!!!
Help our own communities, tourism and football instead of giving hand outs for free
Slippery Jim said | December 2nd 2008 @ 7:51am | Report comment
Cue frequent smug posts agreeing with this article from Pippu…
Millster said | December 2nd 2008 @ 8:05am | Report comment
2018 will be England, 2022 will be China. I’m almost so sure of it I’d put money down.
And to Scott B, for both political and infrastructure reasons I can’t see us bidding for a WC without NZ in the mix. I’d strongly support a joint bid with our Kiwi friends.
Millster said | December 2nd 2008 @ 8:06am | Report comment
Sorry I should have added to the above that this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strongly put our hands up. Even if my view that the locations for these next 2 tournaments are pre-determined, we need to step up and show that we have the plan and national focus to make this work, and put ourselves in a position that cannot be ignored for 2030 (assuming 2026 will be NH/Europe again).
Scott B said | December 2nd 2008 @ 8:23am | Report comment
I strongly support hosting the wc, and the opportunity for as many australians as possible to see a game live. Or to be in a town where a match is being played.
I do think though if england do get it, that would make it harder for us, even if there was a joint bid with nz.
So Spain is our best bet.
Also, a 2030 bid, with the amount of money that is in the middle east and being so easy to travel to from europe, asia and africa. They could put in a very strong joint bid, just look at whats happening to F1. They get things done
Pippinu said | December 2nd 2008 @ 8:32am | Report comment
Nothing much to say really. Pretty much in agreement with MC, SJ, TT and Millster.
2018 is impossible.
2022 is a bit more realistic, but as others have already said, an extremely tough proposition nevertheless.
The one smokey being bandied around at the moment is the prospect of Germany hosting twice in a row should Sth Africa fall over all of a sudden. I’m sure this talk is nothing more than a bit of last resort contingency planning, which is fair enough on the part of the authorities. Nevertheless, this would open up the 2018 bid.
But – if this were to eventuate (Sth Africa falling over), it would be a massive admission of failure on the part of FIFA – so they’ll pull out all stops to make sure it doesn’t happen.