Russia Want 12 New Stadia For World Cup

Russians Bid For 2018 Or 2022 Football Spectacles

Oct 11, 2009

Russia's football leaders are promising to have as many as 12 new stadia for the World Cup should they be awarded the football spectacle in 2018 or 2022.

The Russian Football Federation is showing that it means business as it announced that 12 of the 14 stadia for the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022 would be new venues. The Russians are planning on submitting bids for both World Cups, hoping to receive one of them.

12 New Venues

Russia officially presented a bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups on October 9, 2009. During the presentation in Moscow, Vitaly Mutko, the head of Russia’s Federal Agency on sport and tourism, said 12 of the 14 World Cup venues would be newly built. “I believe Russia would host a World Cup at the highest level,” said Mutko at the presentation while refusing to disclose any financial terms.

2018 World Cup Has Priority

Russia, who will be hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, is bidding for both World Cups but Mutko said his nation would prefer to have the 2018 Cup. “We bid for both World Cups, but the 2018 tournament has priority for us,” he said at the presentation. “I believe a country that has never hosted a World Cup should have an advantage.”

Here are the nine bids submitted for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups: - two of them being joint bid - in alphabetical order.

Australia; Belgium and Netherlands; England; Indonesia; Japan; Mexico; Portugal and Spain; Russia; and United States.

Poor Chances For Joint Bids

Fans from the two joint bids should not be too confident of winning the bid. On January 30, 2009, FIFA President Sepp Blatter told a news conference in Asuncion, Paraguay: 'As long as we have single-country bids which provide all the necessary guarantees we will reject co-hosting bids.'

Bids For Only 2022 World Cup

Two countries are only bidding to host the 2022 World Cup: Qatar and South Korea

Ineligible

In October 2007, FIFA ruled to end its continental rotation policy for the World Cup. Instead, the football body determined that the last two tournament host confederations were ineligible to submit a bid. That left Africa ineligible for 2018 since they are hosting the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. And South America cannot bid for the 2018 or 2022 events after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Deadline, Announcement

Countries bidding have until May 14, 2010 to provide FIFA with the full details for their bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The FIFA Executive Committee will appoint the two hosts at their meeting in December 2010.

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