England’s 2018 bid picks 12 host cities 17/12/2009 |
|
| |
| |
Milton Keynes has been chosen as one of the 12 host cities for England’s 2018 World Cup bid.
A panel headed by Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney selected a total of 16 stadia, including four from London, to put forward to Fifa, with football’s governing body making the final decision on venues late next year should England’s bid be successful. Applications from Hull, Leicester and Derby were rejected by the panel.
Milton Keynes, along with Plymouth and Bristol, was something of a surprise choice as Stadium:mk has a capacity of only 22,000. However, it was felt that it could be easily converted to the minimum 45,000 seats demanded by Fifa.
Liverpool also made the shortlist despite its plans for a new stadium being hit by the financial downturn, while both the City of Manchester Stadium and Old Trafford were selected.
“I have no doubt that this process has strengthened our bid considerably,” said Mawhinney.
“There is a temptation to think of bids in terms of just stadia but we have spent a long time talking about travelling, accommodation and security and the decision we have made constitutes a composite of all the criteria that goes towards what makes a good host city.
“The choices we made represented our best judgement of the strongest possible combination to give England’s bid the strongest attraction compared to other countries’ bids for 2010.
“We always made it clear we aspired to having a wider geographical spread. We have some world-famous stadia and the world would not understand if we didn’t put them in the bid, [but] we felt we should have a sprinkling of tomorrow as well.
“We, as a bid team, are looking forward. We wanted to say to Fifa: ‘We are looking at legacy and legacy is about tomorrow’.
“We heard enough about the new stadiums to put them on the list and we hope that will give local people the confidence to deliver them.”
2018 host cities
Birmingham – Villa Park
Bristol – New Ashton Vale Stadium
Leeds – Elland Road
Liverpool – Anfield or New Anfield
London – Wembley
London – Emirates Stadium
London – New White Hart Lane or Olympic Stadium
Manchester – City of Manchester Stadium
Manchester – Old Trafford
Milton Keynes – Stadium:mk
Newcastle – St James’ Park
Nottingham – New stadium
Plymouth – Home Park
Sheffield – Hillsborough
Sunderland – Stadium of Light
|
| Back |
| |
| |
|
|
 |
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
