News that England will be withdrawing their bid for the 2022 World Cup to focus exclusively on the 2018 World Cup tells me that England is confident they will host the 2018 World Cup. I’ll go one step further and say that England is a shoe in to host the 2018 World Cup. I think Russia is the serious competition since Sepp Blatter made some positive remarks about their bid last year. But I think that England will be the pick for host country from FIFA.
Russia needs to focus their attention on the Sochi Winter Games in 2014, making that a success will be a big enough task for them. The Olympics and World Cup require a lot of support from corporate dollars and Russia doesn’t have the same options that the United Kingdom does. Plus, England hosts the Premier League so the venues and necessary infrastructure are already in place. And England has not hosted a World Cup since 1966. One of the most soccer mad countries on the planet, hasn’t had the biggest soccer event on their home soil in 50 years. That changes soon, England will host the 2018 World Cup.
That opens the door for the United States to be selected to host the 2022 World Cup. The US is competing for the ’22 bid with a host of nations (Australia, South Korea, Japan and Qatar) that would do a great job and be a great story. But FIFA just did the great host nation story with the event in South Africa, which was a great event but not a big money maker. Corporate sponsors are more abundant in the USA, so they’ll get the nod after England.
