Football News: Former United States President Bill Clinton to support US World Cup 2022 bid
Former president of United States Bill Clinton has formally thrown his support behind USA’s bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Bill Clinton is the Honorary Director of US 2022 since May 2010 and has been promoting United States as host for the 2022 World Cup. In a written declaration, the former US head of state said, "I support the candidacy of the United States of America to host
the 2022 FIFA World Cup because I have been a direct witness to the bonds that unify people of different races, cultures, ages, and ideologies that are part of this sporting event."
Bill Clinton will now travel to Zurich, Switzerland to have a meeting with the FIFA Selection Committee before a final decision is made.
Drew Carey, Morgan Freeman, Spike Lee and Brad Pitt have already given their support for U.S to host the 2022 FFA World Cup but U.S.A faces tough competition from the likes of Qatar and Australia but it is believed that the number of supporters for U.S’s
bid will continue to grow.
Soccer, as Americans refer to call the game, has seen an increase in popularity owing to the national team’s great performances in the previous three World Cups; (Korea Japan world cup 2002, Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010).
It has been argued that USA deserves to host the World Cup in future after the local league, Major League Soccer (MLS), has re-organized its football role to the development of the sport in USA.
U.S has a great advantage in improving and promoting the game further because U.S is a huge multi-cultural society with people from Hispanic, European and Asian backgrounds living all over the country.
Bill Clinton thinks that sport is not an exclusive right to only the upper class and the growing presence of people from other countries in U.S has contributed to the growing importance of the game in a country where Baseball, Football and Basketball are
followed crazily.
In 1994, U.S hosted the FIFA World Cup and it was the first time that the country got a chance to see some of the greatest football talents of that time like Baggio, Romario, Bebeto, Rijkaard, and Gascoigne.
1994 World Cup was the main reason behind the ‘soccer revolution’ in U.S. despite early scepticism, FIFA awarded U.S the right to host the tournament in 1994 and the country didn’t disappoint and drew a record attendance of 3,587,538 with an average match
attendance of 68,991. The United States National Team did the whole nation proud when it reached the round of 16 for the first time ever and eventually lost to the eventual champions Brazil.
The World Cup was an instant success and two years after the event, Major League Soccer (MLS) kicked off and is still growing every day and has now started attracting top European players like David Beckham and Thierry Henry.
Many organizations who are not directly related to soccer, have now started observing the unifying nature of football and have started using the game as a tool to bring people closer and have been successful in bringing out a positive change in the society.
Major League Soccer is already playing a great part in the continuing promotion of the game and the MLS is drafting more teams to the Eastern and Western conference every year with an aim to have at least 2 leagues in the country. The recent flurry of American
players in Europe has further enhanced the soccer profile in U.S as more and more people are starting to give attention to the world game and are becoming knowledgeable about football.
The USA Bid Committee withdrew from the 2018 bid in order to solely focus in bringing the World Cup to U.S for sure in 2022. The FIFA Executive Committee will meet in Zurich to finalize the host nations for both 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups.
The US Bidding Committee has already selected 18 cities that will host the World Cup if FIFA approves the bid out of a pool of 37 cities that were considered by the committee.
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