Japan World Cup bid signs up another sponsor

By Andrew Warshaw

September 16 – Japan Airlines is the latest partner to to be signed up by Japan’s 2022 World Cup bid, bringing to 19 the number of official backers.

Two days after announcing Patrick Mboma as its latest player ambassador, Japan’s World Cup team said the national airline was now on board.

As usual, the announcement of Japan Airlines came in the form of a short statement but the bid committee’s apparent scattergun approach to signing up as many backers as possible could be construed in some quarters, as reported previously by insideworldfootball as a late panic move.

Interestingly, the statement conceded that Japan “faces tough competition in its quest to host the World Cup for a second time after its co-hosting of the 2002 tournament with South Korea”, the first time in recent weeks that any public comment has been made from the bid committee about its own chances.

Although Japanese football has come on leaps and bounds and the bid is vastly different from 2002, when two currencies and two separate cultures were involved, it would be a major shock if Japan were to pull off victory.

The same can be said for South Korea, also separately bidding for 2022.

Also in the race are Australia, Qatar and the United States which is expected, at some point prior to the vote on December2, to withdraw from the 2018 race and concentrate solely on the later event.

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