Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Milton Keynes part of England's 2018 World Cup bid
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Milton Keynes will be part of England's 2018 World Cup bid after being named as a candidate host alongside 11 other cities on Wednesday.
Applications from Derby, Hull and Leicester were rejected.
London will propose four stadia to Fifa and Manchester two, with world football's governing body making its final choice of venues in late 2010.
Sunderland, Birmingham, Nottingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol and Plymouth also made the cut.
The Liverpool bid suffered a blow on the deadline day for applications when the government backed a decision to refuse planning permission for Everton's plans for a new stadium at Kirkby.
However, Anfield - or a new Anfield, should it be far enough along the planning and building process - will figure in England's bid "not because it is an iconic football city, but because it has a stadium we feel will strengthen the bid," said Football League and selection panel chairman Lord Mawhinney.
Three stadia will be forwarded from London, Wembley Stadium, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and either the Olympic Stadium or Tottenham's yet-to-be-built new ground.
The other stadia will be Sunderland's Stadium of Light, Birmingham's Villa Park, the new Nottingham Forest stadium, Elland Road in Leeds, Sheffield's Hillsborough stadium, St James' Park in Newcastle, the new Ashton Vale stadium in Bristol, Plymouth's Home Park, and Old Trafford and the City of Manchester Stadium.
"I have no doubt that this process has strengthened our bid considerably," remarked Mahwinney.
"There is a temptation to think of bids in terms of just stadia but we have spent a long time talking about travelling, accommodation and security and the decision we have made constitutes a composite of all the criteria that goes towards what makes a good host city.
"The choices we made represented our best judgement of the strongest possible combination to give England's bid the strongest attraction compared to other countries' bids for 2010.
"We always made it clear we aspired to having a wider geographical spread.
"We have some world famous stadia and the world would not understand if we didn't put them in the bid, (but) we felt we should have a sprinkling of tomorrow as well.
"We, as a bid team, are looking forward. We wanted to say to Fifa: 'We are looking at legacy and legacy is about tomorrow'. We heard enough about the new stadiums to put them on the list and we hope that will give local people the confidence to deliver them."
All bidding nations have to sign up to deliver a number of guarantees and England's have been signed off several months ahead of the May 2010 deadline which, said sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe, was another sign the England bid was back on track after some initial problems with claims of infighting among the board.
"It is now united, and the guarantees, combined with our offer of a £2.5m loan which is on the table if they want to pick it up, underlines that," said Sutcliffe.
The guarantees were signed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and various relevant ministers, while other commitments regarding security, visas and tax were also made.
Fifa obliges bidding nations to sign a confidentiality clause so the exact details of the guarantees are not being released.
It is likely that the tax guarantee is similar to the deal the government agreed with Uefa in order to stage the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley, where foreign players will be exempted from being taxed on their tournament earnings.
England bid chairman Lord Triesman said: "The guarantees underpin around £300m worth of financial commitment without which it would be impossible to host the tournament.
"This again demonstrates England's desire as a whole to meet and exceed Fifa's requirements and guarantees Fifa the most secure environment possible for the world's biggest sporting event in terms of security, financial, legal and commercial partner delivery."
As part of its ongoing campaign, a bid delegation led by Triesman made a formal presentation on Tuesday to Fifa executive committee member Dr Amos Adamu in Abuja, Nigeria.
The presentation included personal messages of support for the bid from Nigeria captain Kanu, Super Eagles midfielder John Obi Mikel and Ghana skipper Michael Essien.
Former Manchester United and England striker Andrew Cole, an England 2018 ambassador, was also part of the delegation.
"It's great to be involved with this bid and it's enjoyable meeting with people around the world to discuss it because it is something I completely believe in," Cole said.
"I would love a World Cup to be in our country as I think we would put on a fantastic show for football everywhere."
A final decision on the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be made in December 2010.
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That's exactly what i thought when i saw they'd made a point of saying it wasn't.
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