U.S. withdraw 2018 World Cup bid to focus on 2022

Published November 20, 2014

By Simon Evans

MIAMI (Reuters) - The United States have withdrawn their bid to host the 2018 World Cup to focus on 2022 and ensure the 2018 tournament will be held in Europe.

The U.S. bid committee said they would now concentrate entirely on their bid to stage the 2022 tournament, which will be decided at the same time as the 2018 host.

"For some time we have been in conversations with FIFA and UEFA about the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 bidding process, an option we have made reference to many times," said Sunil Gulati, chairman of the USA Bid Committee and president of U.S. Soccer.

"We are confident this is in the best interests of the USA Bid."

The decision immediately paved the way for a clearing up of double-bids for the two tournaments - with 2018 now guaranteed to go to Europe and 2022 to either the U.S. or Asia.

A number of countries had bid for both but the U.S. decision was sure to trigger a series of European nations withdrawing from the 2022 race because they are no longer eligible.

"We have had an open and constructive dialogue with the USA Bid for some time now, after it became apparent that there was a growing movement to stage the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Europe," said FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, in the U.S. statement.

"The announcement of today by the USA Bid to focus solely on the 2022 FIFA World Cup is therefore a welcome gesture which is much appreciated by FIFA," he added.

The decision on where the two World Cups will be held will be made in December.

There are now just four candidates, Belgium/Netherlands, England, Russia and Spain/Portugal, bidding for the 2018 World Cup.

Under FIFA rules, the World Cup cannot be held on the same continent on successive occasions so the 2022 World Cup must be held in either the U.S., Australia, Japan, South Korea or Qatar.

The votes for both tournaments will take place in Switzerland in December.

"We wanted to make the announcement now - still 48 days before the final decision - in order to make our intentions clear during the last part of our campaign," Gulati said.

"This also enables FIFA to finalize the selection procedures during its upcoming scheduled Executive Committee meeting."

(Editing by Julian Linden)

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