Australian soccer stars Harry Kewell, left, Collette McCallum 2nd left, Cheryl Salisbury, 2nd right, and Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Sydney, Australia. AP Photo/Rob Griffith
England’s opponents to host the 2018 World Cup have been cut to four rival bids after Australia announced they have pulled out to concentrate on a challenge for the tournament in 2022.
Only USA still remain as a non-European bidder for 2018 although they will now be under intense pressure to target 2022 alone which would leave the field open for England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Holland/Belgium to battle it out.
It has been mooted for months that 2018 is likely to go to Europe so Football Federation Australia’s decision is not a huge surprise.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said: “The FFA have displayed an exemplary level of solidarity with Europe and the European bidding nations and were among the very first to enter into an open and constructive dialogue with me after it became apparent that there was a growing movement to stage the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Europe.
“Their announcement of today, therefore, to henceforth focus solely on bidding for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is a welcome gesture that is much appreciated by FIFA’s leadership and executive committee. We wish to thank Mr Lowy, the FFA and the Australian Government”.
FFA chairman Frank Lowy confirmed his the decision to withdraw from the 2018 bid and concentrate on 2022.
“We have been in discussion with FIFA for months and it is that trusting relationship with the leadership of the governing body that has caused us to focus on 2022 and decide to leave the field for 2018 to European contenders.”
Big Sam
Guest
Actually, China have made noises behind the scenes about 2026. http://china.org.cn/english/sports/163067.htm FIFA Vice-President Issa Hayatou even talked about it four years ago! Clearly someone from China had been in his ear!
Big Sam
Guest
Yes - but Asia hosted the Cup in 2002! North America has waited almost a decade longer! Also, why would the Korean, Japanese & Thai delegates vote for Australia in 2022 when they could vote for USA for 2022 and get the American votes behind in Asian WC in 2026 - perhaps in one of their countries? The only vote we have locked up is the Oceania vote, frankly, we are still a long shot for 2022.
Beaver fever
Guest
Well i guess if you ask them they may or may not agree, depending on who you listen to or believe, Melbourne's bid was white anted by Sydney. I guess you may also ask, who is suffereing now as a result of holding the Olmypics, and would Australia suffer simiarly if we got the w/c.
AndrewMc
Roar Rookie
was it a waste of money for Brisbane or Melbourne to bid for the olympics??? that evertually led to the Sydney olympics
cruyff turn
Roar Rookie
But China have, to my knowledge, made no noises about wanting 2026, and I doubt they will between now and December, so why worry?
Gob Bluth
Guest
We need to watch whether China go for 2026. If they want a crack its unlikely they'll go Asia 2022 and then back for 2026. Its worth factoring in.
mahony
Guest
Actualy 'stormin red' - it demonstrates quite the opposite which is the whole point of the article. You don't forgo anything without a return. The article would sugest that Frank has played his cards beutifully........yet again.
mahony
Guest
It might be the first time he did any jurnolism.....
cruyff turn
Roar Rookie
Stormin Red, I'm not sure if you can say North America is due for a Cup because, really, the only two countries in CONCACAF capable of hosting the event are the USA and maybe Mexico (who have since dropped out of the current bidding). So if we were to pass the Cup from confederation to confederation (not including Oceania), the USA would be hosting it one out of every five times! As we saw with the 2016 Olympic vote which went Rio's way, there is a big advantage of being a bidding country (or region) that has never held the tournament. As for European-friendly time zones, if matches in Australia were played in the evening (say, 8pm EST), then that's around 11am or midday in Europe - whereas evening games in the USA would be after midnight in Europe. It's only the daytime matches where the Americans would have the wood on us. So time zone wise, there are pros and cons for both nations.
Michael C
Guest
Agreed (both Joel and BF)
cruyff turn
Roar Rookie
Wow! That's the first time I've ever seen David Penberthy be positive about our bid. Why the sudden change of heart ???
Mark Young
Guest
I had a massive laugh at that! :)
Chuq
Roar Pro
WTF? What an odd comment. It cost the same no matter which event or events we are going for, and we were ALWAYS up against USA and Qatar for 2022.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Fair summary Stormin. I only disagreed with your previous point aboutbeing in the race for 2018. Because we dont have our own confederation backing us then we probably needed the pulling out of 2018 as some sort of capital..... not saying it will be enough though. A lot to happen between now and December.
AA
Guest
I was talking to DejaRoo.
Michael C
Roar Guru
agreed.
Stormin Red
Roar Rookie
The US have to be favourites for 22. Nth America is due for a cup and the time zone, though still not great for European audiences, is friendlier than ours. Qatar will only get the cup if they bribe enough members, they do have the cash to do that though (I know that is a cynical view but lets face it, it happens). Russia/England will be a chance to if they miss out on 2018, Europeans would happily vote for another cup in their region. Our problem is their are so many bids from Asia that will split the votes. If we were the only ones we would have a powerful voting block behind us but with this vote spread so thinly I can see it going to the US, with the Europeans the next in line.
Stormin Red
Roar Rookie
apaway
Guest
I'm not sure how only bidding for 2022 would have changed the bid cost. It has been a fait accompli for a while now that 2018 was going to Europe. Frank Lowy's announcement is probably designed to engender European support for 2022 - in which case it's a sensible move. The bid cost will become irrelevant if the World Cup is awarded to Australia, in much the same way no-one raises how much it cost to bid for the Sydney Olympics.
Luke10
Roar Rookie
I think you are right AndyRoo. There is always back room politics going on which we just do not hear about. The so called "Australia shown up in World Cup sideshow" article by D.Corran yesterday is turned on its head. Why yes the AFC seemed to catch the FFA by surprise but our holding off, the determination to proceed and then this announcement today could work in our favour.