Australia hopes 2009 & 2010 Club World Cup will lead to 2018 World Cup

Australia hopes their bid for the 2009 & 2010 Club World Cup will help them land the 2018 World Cup.

Their football association's chief executive Ben Buckley said:

"We want to be a strong and positive contributor to the world of football in as many ways as possible," he added.

"Next week's FIFA Congress is part of that strategy, as is the 2015 Asian Cup, bidding for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and also the 2009 and 2010 Club World Cup."

With FIFA meeting in Sydney next week to make the decision on the Club World Cup, chances are very strong Australia will get the nod, but will this actually give them a strong chance at landing the big prize in 2018?

With Europe all but a lock on 2018, and England the obvious front-runner, hosting a relatively small event such as this probably will not change the balance. However, if they can combine this event with a successful 2015 Asian Cup (which has yet to be awarded) and a solid 2018 bid, they might actually position themselves well for 2022.

World Cup 2018 - Could Australia's bid fail due to rugby?

Although England is the front-runner for 2018 World Cup hosting duties, there are still a number of other countries in the mix. Perhaps the nation with the best outside shot of taking the finals is Australia, but first they will need to convince their rugby leagues to take a five week break.

For those that don't know, rugby is the king of sports in Australia and the owners (or at least main tenants) of just about every large stadium in the country. These are the same stadiums the Australian soccer federation will need to use if they are awarded the cup.

The problem is, the rugby season runs from March to the last weekend in September. Since the World Cup is played mostly in June, there is a conflict. FIFA is very demanding of pitch surfaces for World Cups (in Germany they barely let teams practice on the pitches ahead of the matches), so I really could not see them allowing other games played in the selected stadiums.

That means the ruby league would need to take a five-week break in the middle of their season to accommodate World Cup needs. The have changed their schedule in the past (most recently starting early in 2000 due to the Olympics), but as far as I can tell, they have never suspended their season (I am far from an expert on the AFL so I might be wrong).

The other option would be to shift the rugby games to different stadiums. However this too could be complicated as the ruby teams would surely lose money from playing in smaller stadiums and FIFA might not like the idea of having competition during their premier event.

So in the end, Australia's 2018 bid might come down to their rugby league. Will they be interested in completely changing their structure in order to help a sport that very well could become a challenger to their dominance of the sporting landscape? Or will they do like NFL owners in America and decide that the large amount of money they can get from the stadium more then makes up for the limited spike in soccer interest?

US to decide on World Cup 2018 bid

The US Soccer Federation will decide by June 1 if they are going to make a bid on the 2018 World Cup. The Federation is currently exploring the requirements of such a bid.

If the US went forward with this bid, their biggest rival would obviously be England who has a number of major names backing them (Beckham, Blatter, Pele, Beckenbauer). It will be very difficult for anyone to overtake England, but if the US can push the profitability of the 1994 cup as well as point to the growth of the sport within the country, they might be able to pull off an upset.

However, even if this does not happen, a class losing bid for 2018 might set them up as the front runner for 2022. Then again, with China, Russia, Mexico, Canada and Australia all making noise about putting in for 2018 as well, who knows how this will all flush out.

In the end, I doubt the US will get 2018, but I do hope they attempt to claim the prize.

Benelux wants 2018 World Cup

The open race for the 2018 World Cup has another pony as the Benelux countries have declared their intention to play host to the finals. Now just incase you are having trouble recalling the Benelux countries they are Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg and have had a parliament for over 50 years.

The most interesting thing about this announcement is that they are not going it as a joint venture; instead they are doing it as "one entity, one political entity with a common economic base." Does this mean that they all will host it but do will supply a joint Benelux team or will all three nations agree to not have a host nation spot automatically granted to them and, instead, go through full qualifying? Or maybe the three teams will play some tournament to decide who gets the host spot while the other two have to go through qualifying.

Benelux joins the USA, Australia, England and others hoping to get the finals. Unless FIFA makes an announcement soon regarding their rotation policy, expect a few more nations to get in on the speculation fun.

Blatter worst geographer ever

FIFA president Sepp Blatter has made some more headlines, this time with his poor geography skills.

FIFA has been rotating the World Cup between all the continents since 2002 when Asia hosted their first games. Europe got 2006, Africa 2010 and South America 2014. So next up should be, um, let me think here, either Antarctica or North America. Since Antarctica doesn't have the money needed to pay off Jack Warner's family business, all eyes should be looking towards CONCACAF.

Well it turns out that all those books we read as kids were wrong as North and South America are the same continent according to Blatter. Who knew. Blatter now wants the 2018 Cup to return to Asia. Although every soccer lover in Australia and China must love this idea, it does seem a bit of an 'up yours' to CONCACAF.

One of the biggest problems with saying North and South America are one is the fact that CONCACAF countries were not invited to bid on the 2014 finals. If Blatter really feels this way, he should have said so about 4 years ago so Mexico, Canada and the USA would have had time to put something together. Changing the idea now is just moving the goal posts.

A lot has been made of Blatter's other statement, "But then for the time being the plan B is South Africa, and the plan C we definitely must have a possibility to go somewhere else, but it must be a natural catastrophe."

Some people think that this combined with the 2018 North American snub points to the idea of America hosting in 2010. South Africa is having some trouble getting up to steam, but Blatter also said that he would only move the finals if there was "a natural catastrophe or whatever, a big change in society — everybody against football." The second part of that sentence allows a lot of wiggle room, but I wonder if South Africa lost the 2010 Cup, would FIFA not look into giving them another chance in 2014.

So here is the wild theory of the day, FIFA moves 2010 to the US, awards 2014 to South Africa and 2018 to Asia. Under Blatter's new rules, North and South America got their finals in 2010, Africa gets theirs in 2014 and onward we go to Australia in 2018.

It sure is fun to speculate.

One rotation short of a full revolution

FIFA boss Sepp Blatter has hinted that the World Cup rotation, in place since 2002, could end one federation short of a full revolution in 2014. The federation that gets the shaft, CONCACAF.

Now lets see if CONCACAF president Jack Warner can actually do something about this or maybe he'll be to busy helping his son pay off the $1 million he owes SOS Children's Villages "for selling tickets at inflated prices during last year's World Cup."

Here is the list of other items the FIFA executive committee decided:

• gave permission for Toronto FC to compete in Major League Soccer and Bermuda Hogges in the United Soccer League.

• rescheduled the 2008 FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup in Chile from Aug. 28-Sept. 14 to Dec. 30, 2008-Jan. 12, 2009.

• lengthened the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa by one day to June 14-28, with the tournament to be played in Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria and Rustenberg.

• introduced a qualifying playoff between the Oceania champion and the Japanese champion at this year's FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.

• awarded television rights for the 2014 World Cup to the European Broadcasting Union and ARD/ZDF in Germany.

• ratified the emergency committee's decision to lift the suspension of Kenya.

• decided the FIFA Congress in May will vote on whether to make Montenegro the 208th member.

• scheduled the 2008 FIFA Congress from May 28-30 in Sydney, Australia.

The approval of Toronto FC to play in the US league was expected, but it will be interesting to see if any clubs in smaller European countries try and attach themselves to bigger leagues next door. I'm sure there are a few that would like to, but FIFA will probably resist.

Blatter - 2018 World Cup should go to CONCACAF

Sepp Blatter spoke the words that no European wanted to hear and he did so right before meeting with British Treasury Minister Gordon Brown.

"We have decided in the FIFA executive committee that rotation will be installed, and we have made rotation until and including 2014. The executive committee must take a decision whether the rotation should include all the confederations, in which case the 2018 World Cup should be in CONCACAF."

However, he also opened the door to the possible idea of considering both North and South America to be one group. If that were the case, 2014 would be the year for the Americas and Asia might get 2018.

I would guess that either of these scenarios would be hard for most European fans to digest. Also, could Blatter also be suggesting that if CONCACAF gets 2018, Asia could get 2022? That would mean Europe would not host the finals for 20-years. Is this really a possibility?

If 2014 is to be an Americans World Cup, then FIFA needs to make this decision quick to allow the US and Mexico time to come up with a plan (the decision will be made in November). I would guess it is a bit late for either country to really put something great together, but at least they would have a chance.

That said, if 2018 is awarded to CONCACAF, it will be the US's to lose. Mexico would probably make a play for it, but they would be hard pressed to pull it away. Their big advantage might be pointing the popularity of the sport in the two countries, but that didn't keep the finals out of the US in 1994, so it probably would not work in 2018.

US wants 2018 World Cup

Just as England was getting ready to pick their mascot for the 2018 finals, word comes that the young upstart known as America wants to cool their plans.

US Soccer has voted to explore a 2018 World Cup bid, setting the stage for a possible showdown between the two countries. U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, who played a major role in the 1994 World Cup, wants to make magic happen twice., but it will not be easy.

If all goes as planned, the World Cup will not be in Europe for 2010 or 2014. To ask those in Europe to travel off their home continent for a third consecutive final might just be too much to ask.

However, there is one factor that might make it easy for FIFA's to ask so much out of the Europeans, money. The 1994 World Cup is still the best attended in history and made everyone involved huge amounts of profit, and the US has only improved their spacious, luxury box filled stadiums since.

Add to it that it will have been over 20-years since the finals were played in CONCACAF and you might just have the makings of an upset.

That said, at least one person is suggesting that the true goal for US Soccer is 2014, not 2018. As the theory goes, the US would not look good if they made a play for 2014, which has been promised to South America (ie Brazil), but they know, like everyone else, the problems Brazil is facing when it comes to stadiums (they don't have any the meet FIFA's standards). So the idea is they get their house in order as far as plans and venues and raise their profile. If things don't go well in Brazil, FIFA turns to the US as a plan B, much the way they turned to Mexico in 1986 when Columbia* abandoned the cup.

But enough of the conspiracy talk, 2018 is shaping up to be an interesting race. If this all holds out, we could see two great bids from the US and England not to mention the possibility of a strong bid from Australia (and maybe a few others). It should be fun to watch it all unfold between now and 2012 when the host will be announced.

* edit - originally put down Venezuela instead of Columbia. Oops.

England ready to bid for 2018 World Cup

The excitement is building towards an event 11-years away as the English government has said that it is willing to back a bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said, "with the Olympics in London in 2012, hosting the World Cup in 2018 would make the next decade the greatest in Britain's sporting history."

No big surprise that the government is willing to play ball as England has hosted just one World Cup and that was way back in 1966. The fact that 1966 was also the only time England has ever won the great cup kind of let's you know another reason they would like to play host.

Anyway, my favorite line from the article is this: "It would also be the natural turn of a European nation after South Africa in 2010 and, it is thought likely, a South American location in 2014."

I love lines like that. By 2018, it will have been 16-years since Asia held the finals, 24-years since CONCACAF and forever for Oceania, yet 12-years is a natural turn for European nations.

But back to England where only six current stadiums are big enough, at present, to host the events. Those six are Wembley, Old Trafford, The Emirates Stadium, St James' Park, City of Manchester Stadium and Villa Park. I see that they are being optimistic that in 11-years the renovation to Wembley is finally finished.

All joking aside, if the finals are to go to Europe in 2018, England would make an excellent host.