England withdraws bid for 2022 World Cup
England has declared that they will not bid for the 2022 World Cup and will look to host the 2018 World Cup instead.
The news came after the United States put an end to their interest in the 2018 bid.
There are now only four European candidates left to host the World Cup. A FIFA rule states that no continent can host the competition twice in a row.
As a result, England would not be able to run for the 2022 World Cup after the United States pulled out of the race for 2018.
Chairman of the United States committee, Sunil Gulati said, "For some time we have been in conversations with FIFA and UEFA about the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 bidding process."
"We are confident this is in the best interests of the United States bid. We wanted to make the announcement now, 48 days before the final decision to make our intentions clear during the last part of our campaign."
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke stated that he and other FIFA delegates had been in discussions with the United States committee and that they decided to withdraw their bid after it appeared the majority of the FIFA officials preferred a European destination.
"The announcement by the United States bid to focus solely on the 2022 FIFA World Cup is therefore a welcome gesture which is much appreciated by FIFA," said Valcke.
England, Russia, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Holland are now the four bids left in the running.
The English committee for their World Cup bid issued a statement that read, “England 2018/22 today confirmed to FIFA that it was withdrawing its candidature from the FIFA World Cup 2022 and will now focus on its bid to host the tournament in 2018.”
The decision on who will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will take place on 2 December.
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