FIFA Football World Cup 2010
The race is on, as bidders from across the world finalise their bids for the prestigious football event the football world cup. The bids are being submitted to the Federation of International Football FIFA at their headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. The bidding committees from Holland/Belgium, Japan and the Korean Republic handed over their official bids to host the World Cup 2018 or 2022 to FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Friday May 14.
Australia, England, Qatar, Japan, South Korea, Holland/Belgium, Russia, Spain/Portugal and USA are all delivering their bids to FIFA on Friday. Bidding teams have done their utmost to present the best possible picture and planned their bids to outdo each other. The competition as always is fierce and expectedly the bidders are playing their best cards to convince the FIFA President that they are the best choice to host the tournament.
The Holland/Belgium team arrived at FIFA headquarters on bicycles in an effort to show the environment-friendly face as well as the social purpose of their bid. Bicycling remains an extremely popular means of transport in both countries, especially the Netherlands where the distances between towns is short. The ambassador of the bid is Johan Cruyff, who is also a former star football player, and he promoted the green image of the two bidding countries by presenting bikes as the main method of transportation to be used by football fans.
"Like I said, first of all, a small country which means that you can go on the bike which means that you don't get a plane and something to eat, you get on a bike and not a plane so everybody can go," he told reporters after the bid handover.
"It's to tell the world that it's for the environment, we'll try to give two million bikes to all the fans so they can use them to go from place to place if they want", Ruud Gullit, former Dutch international player and Chelsea player manager and now president of the Holland/Belgium bid committee, added.
The Japanese bidding committee followed next offering the president Blatter a bid book presenting technological features. As the FIFA president opened the book, he found a small video game integrated into the side of the book, and a pop-up picture featuring 208 smiles as symbols of the 208 member countries and regions of the FIFA.
"Japan's technologies as well as our emotions were put into the bid and we do have the motivation to share with all the world, all together by hosting and staging the world cup in Japan", Japan's Football Association President Mr. Motoaki Inukai told reporters after the bid handover. The morning session ended when another Asian powerhouse Korea ended with another impressive bid, presenting itself as a source of inspiration for developing countries.
"For one thing, we are a country which came out of dire poverty, war, division, all kinds of difficulties. Now, we have come a long way, which will give the inspiration to countries which are on the way to development, which are seeking peace, which are seeking prosperity and we are able to organise a great football game called World Cup and I think this is the greatest advantage and also message that we can give to the rest of the world", Mr. Sung-joo Han, chairman of the KOBID said as he walked down the stage.
The 2018 tournament will most probably hosted by a European country, which also includes Russia as a part of Europe. If the 2018 edition goes to Europe, Asian powerhouses Japan and Korea would be left to fight for the 2022 edition against the United States, Australia and Qatar.
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