May 31, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25, 1429

SYDNEY, May 30: FIFA is considering naming venues for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups at the same time. FIFA President Sepp Blatter told a news conference after soccer’s governing body’s 58th Congress on Friday that it would make better economic sense for the venues to be named sooner rather than later.

“We can offer two competitions, for eight years, and the economic result ... for sponsors, would be better,” Blatter said. “You would also have inside FIFA some relief.”

The 2010 World Cup will be played in South Africa and the 2014 version in Brazil.

Blatter said countries which have indicated their interest for 2018 are Mexico, the United States, England, Spain, Netherlands, Russia, Qatar, China, Japan and Australia.

He would propose to FIFA’s executive committee later this year that the venues could be named for both 2018 and 2022 by June 2011 — before the elections for the next FIFA executive committee.

“The World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world,” Blatter said. “For television audiences, the World Cup 2006 (in Germany) was four times higher than the Olympic Games in Athens (2004).”

He said the naming of successive hosts would still observe the rule preventing consecutive World Cups being held on the same continent.

“When the decision will be taken by the executive committee, nothing has changed, that the World Cup would not be played on the same continent twice in a row,” said Blatter.

Blatter didn’t give Congress host Australia much optimism for 2018 .

“We are now playing in South Africa and South America, and Australia is also in the southern hemisphere,” Blatter said. “So it is a logical approach that the World Cup 2018 would go back to another continent. Yes, it will perhaps be more preferable for Australia in 2022.”

That news didn’t deter Ben Buckley, chief executive of Football Federation Australia.

“Our goal is 100 percent 2018,” Buckley said. “That’s where we’ll be putting all of our energies.”—AP