Thursday, November 15, 2007

Co-hosts

Add the Belgium/Netherlands bid as another obstacle for a North American World Cup in 2018.

The two European neighbors tossed their collective hat into the ring for 2018 as Belgium and the Netherlands will look to co-host the 2018 World Cup. England is the favorite but other countries including the US and Mexico have expressed interest.

After the difficulties of a two-nation World Cup that was held in 2002, I thought FIFA would no longer be open to co-hosting a World Cup. Japan/Korea had several of logistical problems that arose because of the co-hosting. I was in Japan, did not go to Korea but heard plenty of stories about difficulties in getting back and forth between the two nations.

Of course, you needn't hop on a plane to travel back and forth between Belgium and the Netherlands. I see that as more of a likelihood than USA '18 or Mexico '18.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

for me these 4 are the only candidates who seriously have a chance.

for "Development and growing possibilities of the game" reasons:

Australia
Russia
USA

or for "nostalgic" reasons

England

Ben: Your blog and articles are class

Anonymous said...

russia? russia? are kidding me? Maybe if FIFA is a dirty as they are. That was the worst top 3 ever.

I'm all for Belgium/Netherlands.

Murfmensch said...

Perhaps the US bid should be tweaked by placing the final at the Azteca stadium?

I haven't heard anyone talk about the problems with (many not most) English fans in Germany '06. They were handled well but Germany was able to keep thousands of hooligans out. They will be in England already.

FIFA should take a break from that kind of grief and have their tournament in North America.

Anonymous said...

The biggest problem for a dual bid is the extra automatic bid for the additional host country. Can you imagine how intense UEFA qualifying will be if they have 2 fewer spots to fill?