Belgium-Netherlands first to officially launch bid for
2018 World Cup
By Associated Press
MADRID, Spain - The joint bid by Belgium and the Netherlands
was the first accepted for the 2018 World Cup.
"We have one official candidature, that of Netherlands-Belgium, the
papers are already at FIFA (headquarters)," FIFA president Sepp Blatter
said on Sunday.
The 2018 host will be selected at an executive committee meeting in 2011
with the United States, Mexico, Japan, China, Russia, Spain-Portugal,
England and Australia all interested according to Blatter.
The news came after Blatter reiterated that South America and Africa have
no chance of hosting the 2018 World Cup.
"Of all five continents available to present, South America and Africa
will not be allowed to," Blatter said. "If we hadn't taken the
decision to have a rotation policy in the first place, Africa would never
had had the chance to host the World Cup, neither would South America."
FIFA's executive committee scrapped the rotation policy in October after
it led to South Africa being picked to host the 2010 event and Brazil
for 2014.
Blatter, who was in the Spanish capital to pay tribute to Real Madrid
great Alfredo Di Stefano, also said it wasn't likely that a soccer ball
with a computer chip would be in use by then either.
"We did a study and over the past 40 years there have been 42 cases.
(The chip) is complicated and expensive ... is it really worth changing
things for what turns out to be one case per year?" Blatter said.
"The game will lose its fun and no longer be a talking point among
fans."
Though Hawk-Eye technology - as used in professional tennis - is also
being discussed, Blatter said the game moved too quickly for that.
Instead, Blatter said refereeing should be improved, especially following
match-fixing scandals in Germany, Italy and Brazil in recent years.
The Women's Under-20 World Cup in Chile in November will take the first
steps in testing whether two added assistants - with the purpose of monitoring
the penalty area and offsides - can help so that the sport doesn't have
to rely on goal-line technology, Blatter said.
"FIFA's rules are practically perfect," he said. "What
is the problem with football today? It is not the rules, it is the refereeing."
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