Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

United States World Cup bid chief David Downs has ruled out quitting the race to host the 2018 competition because the team has not received a “compelling enough reason to drop out”.

With Japan and Australia pulling out of the 2018 bidding to focus their efforts on the 2022 event, the US is the last remaining non-European nation left in the running to host the 2018 edition.

Downs told the Press Association: “Well, we certainly heard the analysis in the press that Europe has a big leg-up to hosting 2018, and I think from day one we’ve always thought that our chance to host might be better in 2022 than in 2018.

“But we went into the process competing for both. We’re certainly ready to host either if we’re fortunate enough and honestly, at this point, no one has offered us a compelling enough reason to drop out of the running for 2018 for us to do that.

“If at some point down the road something comes about that requires us to rethink our position, I guess we’re certainly flexible. But, at this point, I think it is probably even of benefit to Fifa that we’re in the bidding and it is not a European-only bidding process.

“In a matter of fact, I think Fifa wanted to move away from the rotation policy. For now, we’re comfortable where we are and we’re always re-evaluating our position, but I wouldn’t expect any dramatic news from us on that story in the very near future.”

He continued: “We’re appreciative that there were two World Cups being offered simultaneously. I think it makes our effort a little more justifiable.

“In every bid you spend a considerable amount of money, time and effort, and ask a lot of people to do a lot of things on your behalf, so it was always a comfort for us to know that there were two prizes out there and we could win one or the other.

“Again, we are realistic that we have longer odds for 2018 than 2022, but we just don’t see the harm of staying in the race at this point.”