Forget Old Trafford and Anfield, Milton Keynes has the best stadium in England's 2018 World Cup bid

By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year

September 2 – Milton Keynes’s stadium has the most potential among the 17 short-listed by England 2018 if their campaign is successful, it has been claimed by the MK Dons manager Karl Robinson.

Stadium:mk, which was built in 2005, currently only has a capacity of 22,000 but there are plans to double that whether England wins its bid or not.

“We’re a lot luckier than Manchester or Liverpool because we now have the chance to transform this growing city,” Robinson, who was born in Liverpool and at 29 is the Football League’s youngest-ever manager, told the Milton Keynes Citizen.

“The stadium is equipped more than any other in the country.

“I think we will bring so much excitement to the World Cup.

“We might not have history, but we are making it now.

“It would mean an awful lot to the club and the chairman - he deserves it - and the city does too.”

The stadium hosted warm-up games before South Africa 2010 featuring Ghana and Nigeria but staging World Cup matches in 2018 would be another remarkable chapter in the story of League One club MK Dons, formed in 2004 after music producer and property developer Peter Winkelman controversially brought Wimbledon and relocated them to Buckinghamshire.

“It’s another chapter for this Walt Disney story that the chairman created seven years ago,” said Robinson (pictured).

“It was only a dream and it has turned into a remarkable story.

“The World Cup will be another tick in a box of many.

“My job is to get the club into the Premier League in time for the World Cup.

“It would mean an awful lot to the club and the city, and that’s what we are pushing for.”

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