Warner urges US not to bid for 2018 World Cup
LONDON: England's hopes of staging the 2018 World Cup received a boost from FIFA vice-president Jack Warner on Tuesday when he urged the United States not to bid.
As president of CONCACAF, the North and Central American and Caribbean federation, Warner would be obliged to vote for the United States but he said he believed England would be the better choice.
Trinidadian Warner, who met representatives of the English FA on Sunday when England played a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago, said it was wrong that the country had not staged a World Cup since 1966.
"It would be political suicide for me to go against my own federation's country," Warner said in a BBC Radio interview.
"But I don't think USA would get the requisite number of votes in total to win the bid so I would urge them not to bid, allowing CONCACAF and our friends to support England. Then, perhaps, the USA could do a deal to host the 2022 World Cup."
Warner backed England's doomed bid to host the 2006 World Cup finals when their lack of support from Europe allowed Germany to win the vote.
He said England had been perceived as "arrogant" when bidding for the 2006 World Cup and urged the bid team to work hard to make sure that the continent was totally behind it.
"In 2006, England's bid was the best," he said. "I believe it's still the best. They must talk to their European colleagues and convince them not to bid.
"The catalyst of my support for England for the bid for 2018 is because I don't believe any country of England's football pedigree should not have a World Cup for almost 50 years.
"(But) even now, if England gets support from outside, she still needs at least two or three people in Europe to give support."
Warner said David Beckham would be the ideal figurehead for England's bid. "Beckham is loved by all," he said. "For many people it would bring a legitimacy to the bid."
Other bids are expected from Australia, China, Russia and the Netherlands and Belgium with the vote being taken in 2011.
Agencies
(China Daily 06/05/2008 page24)
