Fifa chief would welcome England 2018 bid

Sepp Blatter would welcome a bid to stage the 2018 World Cup finals "from the motherland of football".

But the Fifa president has warned that England would face stiff competition in the battle to host the tournament for the first time since 1966.

Blatter, who was in England for the 150th anniversary of Sheffield FC, the world's oldest football club, said: "England is the motherland of football and I would welcome the candidate of the FA - the last time we had the World Cup there was 1966 and by 2018 that will be practically three generations.

"But England will not be the only candidates - we have already had talks with China's football and political authorities and they are keen, Australia are always in the running and there are others - USA, Mexico and perhaps Canada.

"In Europe there is Russia and I will have talks with Holland and Belgium next month to discuss about whether a combined candidature is valid or not."

Blatter is hoping Fifa's current policy of rotating the tournament between the different continents will be scrapped at next week's meeting of the executive committee in Zurich.

And when asked whether England would be given a fair crack of the whip, the most powerful man in world football replied: "We will make sure the bidding will be a fair procedure and our chairman of the ethics committee will have a special look at the candidature of 2018."

Following his meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street, Blatter told reporters: "I told Gordon Brown I would welcome a candidature but first we have to establish the procedure of the 2018 World Cup.

"My thoughts are that we shall open the market and make the World Cup available for everybody apart from the last confederation which has just organised it, which means South America cannot bid for 2018."

Mr Brown believes that the time is right for England to stage the world's most prestigious football tournament.

He said: "While a bid is a matter for the English FA we have said we are not only willing but very keen to support an England bid for the 2018 World Cup.

"2018 would be more than 50 years since we last hosted the World Cup and would be a huge boost to football in our country and would also make for a great sporting decade.

"We will have the Olympics in 2012, potentially the Commonwealth Games in 2014 (in Glasgow), perhaps even the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and then to be able to host the 2018 World Cup in England would be a marvellous completion of the best sporting decade in our history."

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