October 26, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 13, 1428

LONDON, Oct 25: FIFA President Sepp Blatter seemingly encouraged England to bid for the World Cup in 2018 following a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday.

England lost out to Germany in a bid to host the World Cup last year and the country has been eager to bring international football’s blue riband event back to England for the first time since 1966 – when the hosts gained their only triumph in the competition.

But Blatter’s remarks, that he expected a strong bid from the country, will have given the Football Association a lot of encouragement.

Blatter met Brown for half an hour in Downing Street with an England bid for the 2018 finals top of the agenda.

FIFA are expected to announce an end to their rotation policy for hosting the World Cup after 2014, which would mean there would be no obstacles to England bidding for the 2018 tournament. It would mean England going head to head with China, Russia, Australia, the Benelux countries (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) and the USA and Mexico for 2018.

Blatter afterwards said: “Gordon Brown has asked that we shall take a decision that the FA will be able to bid for the 2018 World Cup. It’s an item we will be discussing on Monday and Tuesday at the FIFA executive committee in Zurich, on how the World Cup is to be presented to the world.

“Definitely, if it happens then I can say England, the Football Association of England, will present a really strong bid.”

Blatter said Brown had also promised to help FIFA’s ‘Football for Hope’ programme in Africa. The Prime Minister told Blatter that the time was right for England to host the World Cup again.

Brown said: “While a bid is a matter for the English FA we have said we are not only willing but very keen to support an England bid for the 2018 World Cup.

“2018 would be more than 50 years since we last hosted the World Cup and would be a huge boost to football in our country and would also make for a great sporting decade.

“We will have the Olympics in 2012, potentially the Commonwealth Games in 2014 (in Glasgow), perhaps even the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and then to be able to host the 2018 World Cup in England would be a marvellous completion of the best sporting decade in our history.”—AFP