China Considers Bidding to Stage Soccer's World Cup in 2018
01/10/2007 |
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China, accommodating next year's Olympic Games, is considering a bid to stage soccer's World Cup in 2018, an official from the nation's football association said.
China's successful staging of the Women's World Cup this month prompted the government to study competing for the men's version, Xie Yalong, vice president of the Chinese Football Association, told reporters in Shanghai today. The Women's World Cup final, between Germany and Brazil, will be played tomorrow in the eastern Chinese city.
``We've taking a very pro-active role in studying the bid to host a men's World Cup,'' Xie said. ``We need to acquire the experience of staging such a sports event and we're consulting FIFA on the details.''
FIFA, soccer's world governing body, will decide at the end of next month which confederation will stage the 2018 tournament, FIFA president Joseph Blatter said Sept. 27. After Germany was awarded last year's, Blatter said the quadrennial event would be rotated around the confederations.
The World Cup may pass to Asia in 2018, Blatter said in March, if FIFA rules that the U.S. is viewed as part of the Americas as a whole. If not, the tournament would probably return to north and central America, which won't have staged it since the U.S. did so in 1994.
The economies of World Cup host countries have performed better on average in the years following the tournament, the Center for America Progress said in a June 2006 report. Beijing, China's capital, is investing $65 billion in a new airport terminal, subway lines and roads ahead of the Olympic Games, which will take place from Aug. 8-24.
China ``definitely'' has the ability to bid for and host the 2018 World Cup, Blatter said Sept. 27.
China is staging the Women's World Cup after the 2003 competition was moved to the U.S. because of concern about severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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