England could stage next World Cup

Fifa president Sepp Blatter has revealed England could host the 2010 World Cup if South Africa fail to meet building deadlines.

The world's biggest sporting event is scheduled to take place in Africa for the first time but there has been a steady stream of reports claiming facilities might not be ready.

Blatter insists he is still confident the tournament will go ahead as planned, but he admitted a small group of countries are on a reserve list if South Africa fails to deliver.

Asked if England and Australia could take over in a short-term emergency, Blatter said: "Yes, but there are other countries that are ready to organise tomorrow morning or in two days, or two months, a World Cup. The United States of America, and Mexico, they can do it, Japan, they can do it. They have enough stadia.

"You say England can do it, and I am sure. Spain, they can do it. There is a lot of countries, but they don't need to be ready."

Fifa insists all tournament matches must be played in stadia with capacities of over 40,000 and there are ten clubs in England with grounds that meet that criteria.

Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Sunderland could all stage games and the final could be held at Wembley.

The 2006 World Cup in Germany used 12 venues, so Twickenham could be used as an extra venue, and it might even be possible to include Hampden Park in Glasgow and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

But there are plans to use just ten grounds in South Africa, so England already exceeds that level of facilities.

There are only nine stadia in Australia that have capacities of over 40,000, but the huge distances between the potential venues in there and in America, could count against either country.

At the moment, only seven grounds in Spain currently meet the capacity requirements and eight in Mexico.

The FA is expected to launch a bid to host the 2018 World Cup, when the tournament is expected to return to Europe.

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