Concacaf President Warner wants England to host 2018 World Cup and USA to get 2022

Concacaf President and Fifa Vice-President Jack Warner hopes to convince the USA to abandon their bid for the 2018 finals in order to clear the way for England.

"My message to the USA - and they don't have to listen - is to try to make a deal for 2022 and I'm quite sure that would have universal support."

Although it is painful to say, Warner does make a strong point. The 2018 World Cup is all but assured to be held in Europe and England is by far the front-runner. That said, the US has a major advantage that could trump the somewhat emotional desire to give England only their second final and that is money.

With over 20 stadiums currently able to hold 70,000+ fans and a large diverse population already built in the US, a repeat of the 1994 event (in terms of tickets sold) is very likely. These tickets along with corporate sponsorship deals would likely make FIFA a huge sum of money, even by FIFA standards.

Then again, all that will still be there for 2022.

If there is any message to take from this, it is a warning to the US Soccer Federation that you can bid on 2018, but don't expect your region's president to strong-arm people to vote for you. Warner will stay with the US during the bidding process but he will not do the heavy lifting needed to win the event.

So what should the US do? The 2018 and 2022 cups will be awarded at the same time, so the bidding process is the same time frame. Should they try to reach a deal to obtain England and other European votes or take the risk?

My thought is go for 2022.

On another note of interest, at no point does Warner point to any other CONCACAF countries as possible hosts, which suggests both Mexico and Canada are out in the cold on this one.

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.

Uruguay and Argentina want to host the World Cup

Back in 1930, Uruguay hosted the first ever World Cup and they want to do it again 100 years later. However, they realize that the current version of the finals is a bit too big for them to do it alone, so they have joined with neighbors Argentina for the right to host the 2030 World Cup.

AFA president Julio Grondona expressed his desire to help Uruguay host the event through a formally written letter that was sent to the AUF headquarters in Montevideo earlier on in the week.

“Working for this goal together will bring the relationship between both nations closer than ever. The sporting authorities, and both governments, must work together so that we can reach our objective by 2030,” he stated.

Grondona (76) feels that both nations have a lot of work to do, and they will only send in their proposal once they have a detailed outline of the whole project.

So these two have joined together to host an event that is still 23 years away.

But there might be a problem with this desire. FIFA is expected to soon pass a rule that will end the World Cup rotation after 2014 and that will open up future finals to all continents except for the last two that have hosted World Cups. Because of these changes (and other things coming out of FIFA), it is very much speculated that Europe will again play host in 2018. So here is the way future cups look:
2010 - South Africa
2014 - Brazil
2018 - Europe (most likely England)
2022 - Asia or North America
2026 - Asia or North America
2030 - ?

Knowing that Europe doesn't like going more then two finals without playing host, it would be hard to imagine them not pressing for the 2030 cup.

This is still along way from anything happening and who knows what shape the world will be in 20-years from now (or what rules FIFA will have changed), but the way things are looking from here, it might be a choice between celebrating the history of the game or letting Europe have another one.