Race for 2018 World Cup is still too early to call, claims Russian bid leader

By Duncan Mackay

February 1 – It is too early to evaluate the strength of the candidates who want to host the 2018 World Cup, the head of Russia’s bid Alexey Sorokin (pictured) has claimed.

He also insisted that the recent row sparked by FIFA President Sepp Blatter over whether non-European bidders, including Australia and the United States, will be excluded from bidding for the 2018 World Cup had not changed anything.

In an interview published in tomorrow’s edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, Sorokin said: ”Right now, there’s no such decision – so many countries are still bidding for both years.

“There is movement among the [European] bidding nations, but I don’t think much has changed recently.

“It’s still the same race.

“There’s still the same participants.”

Sorokin, along with the other bidding nations, has been attending the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Congress, held in conjunction with the African Cup of Nations in Angola.

He told the newspaper: ”We’re at the beginning of an intense international relations stage, which started with this Congress.

“Before the bid books are submitted next summer [in May], it’s very difficult to compare chances, to evaluate chances.

“Right now, there’s a lot of strong bids around.”