U.S. Expresses Interest In Hosting FIFA World Cup

By Dialogo
February 04, 2009

U.S., South Korea and Egypt officially make up the list of nations that have expressed ‎interest in hosting the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. ‎ The president of the United States Soccer Federation, Sunil Gulati made the ‎announcement on Monday, and soccer’s world governing body, FIFA confirmed that it ‎has received "expressions of interest" of the Americans, considering that the deadline ‎expires this Tuesday at midnight. ‎ South Korea shares with four other nations of the Asia-Pacific region, the interest of ‎hosting of the event, including Japan, its co-host the 2002 World Cup, Australia, ‎Indonesia and Qatar. ‎ England, Russia and Mexico also indicated that they would carry out their proposal. Joint proposals have been received as in the case of Holland and Belgium, as well as ‎Spain and Portugal, however, the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter has expressed his ‎preference for the candidacy of any individual country. ‎ The nomination process will take 16 months, with countries that ask for the final ‎submission of applications in May 2010. FIFA will announce the hosts of two ‎simultaneous tournaments in December 2010.‎