By Tom Degun
December 10 – England is perfectly placed to stage the 2018 World Cup, former West Ham United and Charlton Athletic manager Alan Curbishley (pictured) has claimed.
Curbishley, who resigned from his post as West Ham United manager and recently won a landmark case for compenstation, insisted that the negative media coverage England’s bid had attracted recently would not affect FIFA’s decision, which is due to be announced on December 2, 2010, at a meeting in Zurich.
Curbishley said: “I don’t think we can read too much into what is said in the press and when the vote comes; no one can be quite sure which way it is going to go.
“Obviously - and I think it was Franz Beckenbauer who said it recently - England could host the World Cup tomorrow with the facilities we have got here.
“So it’s not a situation where a lot of development will have to go on and a lot of money will need to be invested as we are already totally geared up to deal with a global football tournament.
“So unlike most people, I’m just thinking, ‘Let’s see what happens” and we could be in for a surprise like when London won the 2012 Olympics [in Singapore in 2005 after beating favourites Paris in a tense final round of voting].
“There has been a lot of speculation but at the end of the day, no one really knows what’s going to happen.”
Curbishley claims that England have one of the strongest bids for the 2018 World Cup.
He said: ”I think that right now, England is perfectly placed.
“People involved in football know that we can cope with the tournament and they know it will be an absolute success.
“When World Cup Games are shown around the world, people want to see full stadiums and great atmospheres and the Premier League has shown time and again that we have fantastic atmospheres and sold out stadiums on a weekly basis in this country and few nations can compete with that.”
Curbishley also revealed that he would be interested in a return to top-flight management in the near future but that he is awaiting the right offer.
As insideworldfootball reported earlier this week, Curbishley last month won a case for constructive dismissal against West Ham and is due to find out in January how much compensation he will receive.
He said: “If I do come back, it going to have to be for something that excites me and obviously I would like to think that it would be in the Premier League but we’ll have to see what happens as I cannot make that decision alone.”
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