U.S. Soccer Prepares 2018 World Cup Bid

• Washington Post, Tuesday, February 20, 2007 2:53 PM

U.S. Soccer on Tuesday announced that it's forming an organizing committee to prepare a bid for the 2018 World Cup, for which England is also planning a bid. The host won't be chosen until 2012. "We showed in 1994 that the U.S. is capable of hosting a terrific event," U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati told the Washington Post. "Now, with the way the soccer landscape in this country has evolved, we would be in position to put on a spectacular event. We are much more a part of the sport internationally than we were in 1994."

A U.S. bid would likely annoy Europe's traditional soccer powers, which have been forced to concede the 2010 and 2014 tournaments to South Africa and South America (most likely Brazil), respectively. The U.S. bid will ride on soccer's ever-growing influence in the country, the resounding success of the 1994 World Cup, which featured the largest average attendance in tournament history (68,991), and the 1999 and 2003 Women's World Cups.

While FIFA has said the 2014 event will be hosted by a South American country, only Brazil and Colombia have expressed interest, inviting the possibility that FIFA would entertain a U.S. bid. Mexico, which hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cups, may also enter the race for either 2014 or 2018, according to the Post. Argentina was the last South American country to host the World Cup in 1978.

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