By Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
September 8 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter appears to have dashed any lingering hopes that the United States has of hosting the 2018 World Cup by claiming that no-one is in doubt that the tournament will be held in Europe.
The US are the only non-European bidders left in the race for the 2018 World Cup alongside England and Russia and joint bids from Spain and Portugal and Holland and Belgium.
“The way it looks, Europe can more than just hope to host the 2018 World Cup,” Blatter told German newspaper Sport Bild.
“This is not being questioned internationally, neither in the FIFA Executive Committee.”
The US have so far refused to follow Australia and drop its bid for 2018 to concentrate on the 2022 World Cup.
David Downs told insideworldfootball last week that “there is no road map” for the US pulling out of 2018 but if they believed it would benefit their campaign for 2022 then “we would consider it”.
Blatter also pledged that FIFA will not raise the number of teams competing at the 2018 World Cup from its current figure of 32, which has already been criticised by some leading officials as being too big.
“You will certainly not see an increase in the number of teams in eight years,” he said.
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