Russia & Qatar to Host FIFA World Cup in 2018 & 2022 respectively

Bids

Eleven bids were submitted in March 2009 covering thirteen nations, with two joint bids: Belgium-Netherlands and Portugal-Spain. Mexico also submitted a bid, but withdrew theirs on 28 September 2009, while Indonesia had their bid rejected for lack of government support on 19 March 2010. Five of the remaining nine bids, South Korea, Qatar, Japan, Australia and United States are only for the 2022 World Cup, while all the others are bidding for both the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. However, since all of the bids for the 2018 World Cup are from European nations, and FIFA's rules dictate that countries belonging to confederations that hosted either of the two preceding tournaments are not eligible to host, all of these bids are now forced to be for 2018 only. Four bids come from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), four from Europe's UEFA, and one from CONCACAF. It had also been reported on the FIFA website that Egypt was entering a bid, but the president of the Egyptian Football Association denied that any more than an inquiry in principle had been made. The number of bids received meant that the 2018 World Cup is the most contested bid in FIFA's history.

 

Summary:

 

2018 Bids: Belgium-Netherlands, England, Russia, Portugal-Spain

2022 Bids: Australia, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, United States

 

 

Voting Rounds

2018 FIFA World Cup

Round 1: England 2 votes, Netherlands/Belgium 4 votes, Spain/Portugal 7 votes and Russia 9 votes (England eliminated)
Round 2: Netherlands/Belgium 2 votes, Spain/Portugal 7 votes and Russia 13 votes (Russia wins)

 

2022 FIFA World Cup

Round 1: Australia 1 vote, Japan 3 votes, Korea Republic 4 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 3 votes (Australia eliminated)
Round 2: Japan 2 votes, Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 10 votes and USA 5 votes (Japan eliminated)
Round 3: Korea Republic 5 votes, Qatar 11 votes, USA 6 votes (Korea Republic eliminated)
Round 4: Qatar 14 votes and USA 8 votes (Qatar wins)

 

The Game

 

England sent Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince William and David Beckham for intense lobbying but England was eliminated in the first round of 2018 voting, earning only two of the 22 votes. Russia's selection came despite the no-show of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but his influence still had an impact on FIFA's 22 voters as the bid won over England, Spain-Portugal and Belgium-Netherlands. Putin immediately hopped on a plane to Zurich to congratulate the bid team after hearing the result.

United States counted on the aura of former president Bill Clinton, actor Morgan Freeman, Elle Macpherson and U.S. World Cup standout Landon Donovan who attended the final bid presentation on Wednesday. In addition, President Barack Obama submitted a video in support of the U.S. bid. Still Qatar won the final bid.

 

Selection/Winners

FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced the winning bids following voting at the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich. Russia was chosen to host the 2018 World Cup, and Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup. This made Russia the first Eastern European country to host the World Cup; Qatar is the first Middle Eastern country to host the Cup. Blatter noted that the committee had decided to "go to new lands" and reflected a desire to "develop football" by bringing it to more nations.