I am delighted to see that the government has given its ull backing to a potential bid fromthe FA for the 2018 World Cup to be held in England.
Usually, World Cups are an expensive business. However, the largets part of that expense is usually in the infrastructure costs of building massive new stadia and the necessary transport links.
We are very lucky in England to have some of the very best stadia and football facilities anywhere in the world without needing to invest a penny in them. Anfield (Liverpool), St James' Park (Newcastle) , The Riverside (Middlesborough), Villa Park (Aston Villa), Old Trafford (Man Utd), The City of Manchester Stadium (Man City), The Emirates Stadium (Arsenal), White Hart Lane (Spurs) and Stamford Bridge (Chelsea) are all world class stadiums that are easily capable of holding international fixtures at present. This does not include excellent stadia with smaller capacities like St Mary's (Southampton), Molyneaux (Wolves), Madejski (Reading), Carrow Road (Norwich), not to mention the new Wembley - surely it will be ready by 2018 - and possibly the Millenium Stadium, which although in Wales, would almost certainly be allowed to be used.
So, no doubt the doom merchants will have a go and criticise the government, but with the potential gain of millions of visitors to the UK, this would be a great event. Euro 96 showed we could do it, the Olympics bid shows we can win serious bids now, so the time is right.
Well done to the government for being clear and decisive on this issue.
Usually, World Cups are an expensive business. However, the largets part of that expense is usually in the infrastructure costs of building massive new stadia and the necessary transport links.
We are very lucky in England to have some of the very best stadia and football facilities anywhere in the world without needing to invest a penny in them. Anfield (Liverpool), St James' Park (Newcastle) , The Riverside (Middlesborough), Villa Park (Aston Villa), Old Trafford (Man Utd), The City of Manchester Stadium (Man City), The Emirates Stadium (Arsenal), White Hart Lane (Spurs) and Stamford Bridge (Chelsea) are all world class stadiums that are easily capable of holding international fixtures at present. This does not include excellent stadia with smaller capacities like St Mary's (Southampton), Molyneaux (Wolves), Madejski (Reading), Carrow Road (Norwich), not to mention the new Wembley - surely it will be ready by 2018 - and possibly the Millenium Stadium, which although in Wales, would almost certainly be allowed to be used.
So, no doubt the doom merchants will have a go and criticise the government, but with the potential gain of millions of visitors to the UK, this would be a great event. Euro 96 showed we could do it, the Olympics bid shows we can win serious bids now, so the time is right.
Well done to the government for being clear and decisive on this issue.
3 comments:
Now World Cup football in Wolverhampton would be excellent.
Colin
www.colin-ross.org.uk
ps - hope you are well!
Why not ? There are always some games where tickets are not in demand (friends of mine saw Iran vs someone in Germany and bought tickets at very short notice).
Some of the so called "Minor" game need to be moved around the country to give people a chance to take part in the world cup experience.
The good thing about the World Cup is that the benefits will be spread all over the country - unlike the expensive white elephant that is the Olympics which will only benefit the only part of the country that doesnt need more traffic, more infrastructure spending, better facilities and more jobs.
I'm not sure how many stadia you need to run a world cup these days but i hope the bid uses as many as possible with some in each region plus a requirement for the teams to use lower league club facilities for training bases so you could have, for example, games being played at the Walkers Stadium or Pride Park with places like Lincoln and Nottingham used as training bases.
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